


Haunted by Vampires

by LilLostLady



Series: Haunted [1]
Category: Lost Boys (Movies)
Genre: A commenter on another site came up with the previous tag, Baking with Dwayne, Betaed, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Canonical Character Death, Dead People, Fire, Gen, Ghosts, Haunting, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Murder, Not as depressing as the tags make it seem, Original Character Death(s), Torture, Vampires, most of the time anyway, vampire ghosts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-04-22 00:01:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 37,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14296317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilLostLady/pseuds/LilLostLady
Summary: Many years have passed since the Lost Boys demise but are they completely gone? Lily Emerson is in for a summer unlike any other when the little girl is dropped off at her grandmother Star's house, a house that has been in the family for a long time and has a unique history. Will this little girl resurrect her grandmother's worst nightmare or will good once again triumph?





	1. Grandma Star

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *EDIT 10/06/18* Chapter beta'd by exaigon on FanFiction.Net

"Are we there yet?" A bouncing little brunette girl asked with excitement in her voice from the back seat of her dad's car.

"The answer hasn't changed since the last time you asked me five minutes ago, sweetie," her dad answered. "I know you're excited about spending the summer with your grandmother but remember patience is-"

"An important skill to develop, I know. But I'm eight. Patience is practically a non-requirement and can wait a few more years," she quoted as her father sighed.

"That's your mother talking."

The girl shook her head. "No Dad. Mom's not here, I was talking," she said smartly.

"You know what I mea-" Not letting him continue she once again asked, "Are we there yet?"

"Lillian," he practically shouted in frustration.

"It's Lily!" She stopped bouncing and shouted back. After all, shouting is all she's heard lately so she may as well do it too.

He glared into the rearview mirror. "Don't yell at me young lady. I can always turn this car right back around and leave you with your uncle Sam this summer instead."

Dark eyes grew wide at the threat and she quickly shook her head. "No! I'm sorry!" Looking down she mumbled, "But it is..."

Apologizing wasn't something the little girl liked but it was so much better than going to Uncle Sam's house. He collected nasty dead bugs and hung them around his house... he was weird!

A few minutes later the little girl known as Lily was still pouting and playing with her handheld when her dad spoke, "Look Lilypad. It's the Santa Carla sign."

"So... we're here now?" She asked, and he sighed again.

"Almost."

At that she unbuckled her seatbelt and moved to her knees to get a closer look out of the window. Her dad hollered at her to put it back on.

"Ohh lookit," she pointed, "someone wrote on the sign. They're not supposed to do that are they?" She tilted her head curiously while looking out the back window as they passed it.

"No, they're not. Just like you are not supposed to unbuckle while the car is moving! Now get your seatbelt back on this instant!" His tone was irritated and, knowing better than to keep pushing him, she listened.

"Oh, okay," she exaggeratedly flopped back down and did as she was told while mumbling to herself, "I'll just have to take it off again in a second so why bother?"

Her father pretended not to hear her while glancing at the rear-view mirror to make sure she was actually doing as he said. Once she was back in the uncomfortable seat belt she grabbed her recently discarded handheld from beside her.

"Wouldn't you rather look outside than play that thing?"

Frowning without letting her eyes leave the screen, she answered, "Not if I can't get a good look. There's no point."

He sighed once again, "Never should've bought you that thing."

Ignoring him, she pets the puppy on the screen with her finger. It's the closest she can get to actually petting them most days since her daddy was allergic. Though truthfully, she just thought it was an excuse he told her so that she couldn't have one. What he was really allergic to was fun, she thought to herself.

Feeding the dog on screen she had a thought occur to her.

"Does grandma have a dog?"

"No, she doesn't," is the instant reply.

"Why not?" The girl tosses the fake dog a bone. "Same reason we don't."

Lily doubted her grandmother was allergic to fun like him but didn't say so. "But you said you never lived in grandpa's house where grandma lives now. So why not?"

"Because." She hated that answer. It was a non-answer and probably the reason him and mom fought so much.

"Because why?" She asked despite knowing she was annoying him. Mostly she didn't care because he was annoying her too.

His voice wasn't very happy sounding as he answered, "Because your grandmother has better things to do than look after some mangy mutt."

Glancing up at his tense form she quietly mumbled, "Wouldn't be mangy if you loved it..."

In her mind she couldn't help but question if he even still loved her. After all, the reason she's so excited to go to a grandmother that she's only met a handful of times was because, lately all he does is yell at her to go to her room, so he can yell at her mom. Though Mommy yelled back … he usually started yelling first.

Her thoughts were interrupted as he started to speak again, "Besides you don't need a dog to play with. You'll have your grandmother."

Yeah, but she's old and probably sleeps a lot, she thought. Instead of saying that she countered with another question.

"Does she have a cat?"

"Lillian," he said in exasperation.

She muttered under her breath, "It's Lily..."

It's really not that hard to remember, she knew, but more and more often he calls her by her full name. A few minutes later they pull into the drive. Before the car is completely stopped her seatbelt is off and the car's back door is open.

"Lillian," he calls but she ignored him and jumped out of the slightly moving car yelling, "It's Lily!"

Before running for the front porch where her grandma is waiting.

"Grandma!" She ran up and hugged her around the waist. "Do you remember me?" Lily asked while looking into her grandmother's laughing face.

"Of course, I remember my favorite granddaughter."

"I'm your only granddaughter," she laughed as well.

"Well then how could I possibly forget," the older woman stated happily.

"Lillian," shouted her father as he stormed up the steps. Said girl squeaked and hid behind her grandmother's skirt before he reached them. His face was doing that color changing thing again. She knew she was in for it now.

"You, little lady, are grounded! What did I tell you about waiting until the car completely stopped before jumping out of it?"

Not saying anything, she hugged her grandma's skirt tighter while peeking out to look at his angry face.

"Oh, come now Chris it was hardly moving. She's fine."

He started doing the breathing exercises that his young daughter recalled the doctor telling him to start doing recently because something about blood and sugar... Adults are strange was the only thing that the girl could come up with from that.

Before he finished her grandma spoke, "Why don't you head on inside. I made some cookies. They're in the kitchen. I'll call you out before he leaves so you can say goodbye."

Before the words completely left her mouth the girl was taking off.

"Mom you'll ruin her appetite if you feed her junk food and she hardly needs the sugar. She's already got too much energy."

Hiding just inside the door the young Emerson girl pressed her ear to the door to listen.

"Chris, I know you're stressed right now but try not to take it out on Lily. This must be hard on her too," his mother said consolingly.

She can practically hear his pacing.

"Lately she's just been acting out and back talking me. I'm sure it's her mother's influence! I know it sounds paranoid, but I think she's trying to turn her against me."

Lily almost opened the door to yell at him for saying that but knew better than to give away the fact that she'd been listening. So instead, she bit her tongue.

"You aren't paranoid just… under a lot of pressure. I thought the counseling was helping the two of you?" The question was asked in a kind tone.

"It's complicated…"

No, it's really not. He's just not trying anymore. Neither of them were but he gave up trying to understand her mom first from the young girl's point of view.

"But you are taking the counselors advice right… I mean that's why I'm watching Lily so that you and Beth can work things out this summer?"

She thought he just wanted her gone but if it's to spend time with mom maybe things will be okay…

"I don't think there's anything to work out… I'm pretty sure this marriage is over." The girl's brown eyes grew misty as she quickly moved away from the door not wanting to hear anymore. She knew it! He's not trying to make things better. He's the worst!

Wiping at her eyes with her arm she moved through the hallway and into the living room completely forgetting about the promised cookies in the kitchen. The walls were made out of wood. Looking around she got the feeling of being in a cabin instead of a house, like the one she grew up in. The walls had a few family pictures scattered around but mostly they were empty except for the large noticeable cross taking up half of one of the walls.

The television was small and so was the couch in front of it. Actually, it only had two seats, so it was a loveseat, not a couch she realized. Then to the far right there was an old music thing against the wall. She wasn't sure what it was called having never seen one outside of old movies. It also seemed to be broken upon closer inspection. She walked up to it and ran her fingers over the damaged parts curiously.

Moving away from the vintage music maker, Lily wandered further into the living room. It was big, open, and felt kinda empty despite the few pieces of furniture. Mostly, though, it felt boring. After a few minutes she decided to go look upstairs. Once there she found the bathroom, also boring with no style whatsoever, but that was old people for you. Next there was a couple of bedrooms. They didn't look like they'd been used for a while. There wasn't much in them either, just some old posters and a lot of dust. One even had a bunch of dead stuffed animals in the closet, so she decided to use the other bedroom's bed to lie down on. It seemed newer or at least less dusty than the other one anyways. Plus, no dead things in the closet.

Facing the wall, her excitement and energy from earlier having all but dried up, Lily found herself drifting off to sleep. At one point she heard her grandmother's voice calling her from downstairs to come say goodbye to her dad but the little brunette just moved the pillow to block out the noise, not wanting to go see him.

The next time she came to was a short while later when the door opened and her grandma shook her shoulder. Getting no response, she left her whispered words of how tiring the ride must have been barely reaching her ears as she drifted off once again.

All the while not noticing that she wasn't alone.

-

When she opened her eyes next, the room was much darker than it had been the last time she was awake. She looked around the darkened room in confusion for a moment before remembering where she was.

"I'm at grandma's house…"

Running a hand through her long messy bedhead to try and tame the tangled curls, she quickly gave up when her stomach let out a growl that could be mistaken for a monster or a bear, both of which where things she was scared of. It made her come to the quick realization that she missed lunch. After a bathroom break, the girl headed downstairs just in time to smell something delicious coming from the kitchen.

"There you are, I was just about to come wake you up for dinner."

Her smile was contagious and caused Lily to grin as well and ask happily, "You made spaghetti?"

"Your father said it was your favorite."

At her words, the girl's smile dropped.

"Something wrong?" The elder woman asked seeing her granddaughter's expression.

"No…"

She didn't buy it, though. "Oh, you probably miss your dad."

Not really, she thinks but headed to the table in silence.

"Well, don't be sad. He did come say goodbye, but you were sleeping so soundly that he didn't want to wake you." She put a plate in front of Lily and started to serve them both as she continued, "He said he'd call regularly. Speaking of, he brought your things upstairs to the room you were sleeping in. Oh, and your cell phone should be with it." Sitting down she frowned and swatted lightly at the girl's hand. "Not yet. We have to say grace first."

"Right…"

Dad had said that Grandma was religious, and she vaguely recalled them saying grace when her Grams came to visit but she couldn't recall any words in particular. At home they never really ate together or at the same times and her mom called religion 'a crazy acid induced dream someone had before they even had acid'. Whatever that meant.

"Why don't you say grace tonight?"

Her face must have looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "Umm…"

Her grandmother sighed, "Your father does say grace when you sit down to eat, does he not?"

"…When he's home…" It was only a half lie. He used to when he was home but that was a long time ago. She hardly remembered that time and lately anything that her parents don't agree on just doesn't get said until she's in her room. It's like they think closing a door means that she can't hear them.

"Alright. I'll say it tonight and then it'll be your turn tomorrow. How's that sound?"

She nodded her head in agreement, glad to be spared for the night, and prepared to listen so that she could copy the words for tomorrow. Just as her grandma opened her mouth to start saying grace, lights started flashing through the kitchen windows and the sound of engines and laughter started. Her grandmother grabbed at the cross around her neck and jumped up from the table before closing the blinds forcefully and yelling something about them not being welcome here. She did a thing she'd seen in movies where a person used their fingers to touch their forehead and shoulders. It was supposed to be a cross thing, right?

A way to scare off demons. But those were only in movies. Movies she wasn't supposed to have watched. But she had caught a few on late night TV when her parents' voices kept her from falling asleep and she wanted something to do.

She didn't get it, though. People rode bikes all the time in the city where she lives, though maybe not as close to her house or at night as far as she knew. Still, it wasn't scary enough to pray over, was it? It's not like it was a bear or a monster, 'cause Mama told her those weren't real and her mom knew everything. Not wanting to eat her food cold, the girl snuck in a few bites while her grandmother stood at the window sill saying a few prayers under her breath and clutching her cross.

By the time it stopped, and the girl's grandma returned to the table looking far too pale, she was too distracted to notice that half of her granddaughter's food was gone or that her face had the evidence of her crime displayed in the form of the sauce on it. Instead, she quickly and quietly said grace; something about being grateful for bread or something even though they don't have any bread. Garlic bread would've been nice with her spaghetti, though, the young brunette thought.

After a few minutes of silence, she asked, "Grandma?" Getting no reply, she spoke louder, "Grandma Star?"

This caused her to look up from her food startled. "Oh yes what is it?"

Her hands were twirling her food and the little girl noticed that she had barely taken a bite.

"Are you okay…? It was just motorbikes. Don't be scared. They can't hurt you unless you stand in front of a moving one," Lily helpfully supplied.

Grimacing, Star laid her fork down. "I have to ask you something, Lilian."

The little girl barely bit back the automatic response of 'It's Lily.' Instead, she asked, "What?"

"You know better than to let in strangers, don't you?"

Her dark eyes stare straight into an older set of very similar eyes as she responded, "Of course! I am eight. I don't talk to strangers or answer the door for them."

Her grandma smiled slightly. "I'm glad. That means if you hear someone ask you to let them in, you say no." She nodded to appease her grandmother. "Even if you don't see them. If you hear or even feel them, you tell them 'no' or 'go away' and they'll leave you alone because they won't have any power over you."

The young brunette looked confused. "I don't get it… What do you mean not see them and how do you feel someone if you can't see them?"

The older graying woman sighed, "You don't have to get it. Just think of it as 'house rules' and don't let anyone you don't know inside. No matter what, alright?" The girl slowly nodded but then her hand was grabbed and squeezed harshly. "No matter what understand."

No, she didn't but her head nodded faster, and she answered the opposite, "I understand."

"Good. Now let's finish eating and call it a night early. I'm exhausted and I'm sure you could use some more sleep after that long drive."

She wasn't tired but decided not to say so. With that the two ate their cold spaghetti in silence.

Not long after, the two were in the room Lily had spent most of the day sleeping in and the old lady was tucking her in.

"Now then let's pray. Just repeat after me okay?"

Nodding, she folded her hands in the same way as the older woman and closed her eyes too.

"Now I lay me down to sleep," the girl parroted the words. "I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake," Her granddaughter went quiet and opened her eyes to look at the older of the two before saying, "But I don't wanna die."

Star sighed and opened her eyes to look back at her. "You are perfectly fine so that shouldn't happen to you anytime soon. Let's continue."

After thinking she had pacified the little brunette she closed her eyes again.

"But…"

The elder woman cuts her off sternly, "Let's continue."

Frowning and looking at her grandmother's closed eyes she laid her hands on her lap and sullenly replied, "Okay…" Still watching her grandma's face, she crossed her fingers in her lap. "If I…die before I wake."

The little girl smiled at getting away with it and uncrossed her fingers in case the other's eyes opened.

"I pray the Lord my soul to take."

Once again, the young girl didn't continue. "What if I want to stay here," she whispered.

Funnily enough, she felt eyes on her, but her grandmother's eyes were still closed.

"You don't want that. Now finish the prayer, please." Her wrinkles were more prominent now that her face was upset, even more so than when they were downstairs. Even though she didn't want to make her angry she didn't want to die or lose her soul either because that was scary and so she told her so.

"But I do, I don't wanna die!" Her voice was shaky as she got more worked up. Lily did not want to think about death.

"Lilian please finish saying the prayer." It was a demand, not a plea. The brunette knew the difference but didn't care. "We will talk about this tomorrow, just say the last line!" The older woman was also getting worked up at her refusal to comply.

"Nope, goodnight." With that she rolled over and pulled the covers over her head. Her grandmother's upset voice is muffled by her hands covering her ears like she does at home sometimes. The covers are pulled off of her face, but her eyes are closed. She heard something about her 'childishness' but then the door shut, and her hands left her ears and she sat up sticking her tongue out at the door.

Seeing a cross lying next to her on the desk beside the bed, she picked it up and tossed it to the floor.

"She's just like daddy…"

Tears started to form in her eyes, but she brought up her arm and wiped her eyes forcefully to keep them from falling. She didn't want to talk about death or think about it because doing so made her picture him... her little brother. He had been so very still and quiet. She didn't want to be that still or quiet. Not ever. It was wrong and scary.

Not dwelling on it any longer she got out of bed and pressed her ear up to the door. She didn't hear anything, so the girl opened the door and peered outside of it. Seeing no one she quietly walked into the hallway and then made her way to the stairs, noting that all the lights downstairs seemed to be off. Just to be sure that the coast was clear she took slow steps as she snuck down the staircase.

Pausing every now and then to listen, she finally made it to the bottom and looked around. It was hard to make out anything in the dark but somehow the young girl made her way to the living room couch with no mishaps.

It took her a minute to find the remote in the dark but when she did she turned on the TV set. It didn't take long to find out the old TV only had a few channels so she mostly just channel surfed. At least it's something to do and take her mind off of things she'd rather not think on. After about her third time going through them something glowing caught her attention out of the corner of her eye but when she turned toward it she didn't see anything other than that big old broken music box.

Her curiosity was peaked though, so she dropped the remote on the couch and walked up to it only for it to suddenly start playing. It made her jump, startled, before the young Emerson girl stared at it with amazed wide eyes. The music was not quiet, but she momentarily forgot about her sleeping grandmother. The song wasn't familiar but sounded nice enough and it had lights on it too, so the little girl was entranced by it. But how was it playing she wondered. Maybe it was the light that she saw before. As if someone heard her thinking that another glow appeared at the corner of her vision.

Turning toward it, she was surprised to still see it there. It looked like the tip of a cigarette and now she can smell it too.

Did grandma smoke? She didn't think so, but who else could it be then?

"Hello, Lily…" A voice whispered.

It sounded almost like the wind. If the wind could speak that is.

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers," she whispered back only just now realizing that the loud music should have drowned out the words she'd just heard. But despite the sound, it was a clear voice if somewhat unusual. A chuckle came from behind her but turning around showed nothing and no one behind her. It sounded like the voice from before but the glow from the cigarette hadn't moved. "We're not strangers. Why, I'd say we're practically family."

The girl whirled back to face the light of the cigarette where the voice was coming from. "We're not family…"

"Your grandpa Michael was practically our brother, so I say that makes us family."

"You knew grandpa?" Lily asked curiously.

"Yes."

"Who… who are you?"

She didn't realize she had walked closer to the glow of the cigarette until it disappeared, and she only had the faint glow of the tv and the music box behind her. The smell of cigarette smoke was suddenly much closer, and she could feel someone's breathe on her ear.

"I'm David."

Another voice, a different one, spoke then, "Nice to meet you, little sister."

It sounded like the wind too.

"Sister?" As soon as the words left her mouth, all the light and sound left the room. Everything cut off and then suddenly the light was turned on and her grandmother was there.

"Lilian what are you doing?" She asked in a warmer voice than she had when they were both up in her room earlier. Lily didn't say anything just looked around for the people she was speaking too but all she saw was the same boring living room, it was exactly the same as it was before aside from the big cross right above her head.

"Grandma did the cross always look like that?" She asked pointing up at it

Her grandmother's gasp came from behind her. The cross was cracked in half and covered in moss and mildew. It looked nothing like its pristine white image from earlier.

The young girl had no idea something could get so dirty so quickly and it wasn't broken before, was it?

"Lilian what did you do!?" Her grandmother asked horrified

Looking away from the cross, Lily's eyes widened as she turned away from the cross to look up into her grandmother's face and she can see it in her eyes. She thought it was Lily's fault. The girl in question did what any other little girl would do and denied it by throwing a mini tantrum upset at being blamed.

"What do you mean, I didn't do anything!"


	2. The Wind?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I notice the italics I used for when the ghost's speak doesn't show up like they do on other sites where I post this... does anyone know if and how I can fix that? Either way, enjoy the chapter!
> 
> *EDIT 10/28/18* Chapter beta'd by exaigon on Fanfiction.Net

That night was frustrating for little Lily Emerson as her grandmother refused to let her out of her sight and even made her sleep in her grandma's bed like some little baby. Which she wasn't! The younger girl just knew she did it because she didn't trust her not to break or mess up anything else.

She had hoped things would be different away from her dad, but sadly she was still getting yelled at and blamed for things.

It's not like she could even reach the dumb cross even if she had wanted to. Finally, though, after a restless first night it ended and as soon as her grandmother woke up she made them some eggs and toast silently before she got on the phone. That was the cue for the brunette to flee outside for some measure of freedom. She did not want to be told to stay in her room all day! No way!

It was summer, so the weather was nice and warm making it the perfect time to wear her nice summer dresses. Still, she made sure to put a pair of shorts on underneath so that she could play.

However, playing turned out to be harder than she'd imagined as there wasn't much to do on the property. The old shed was the first thing she took notice of, but it was locked. The lock had rusted so, try as she might, pulling on it did nothing to budge the doors and peeking in through the dusty windows didn't show much either. Lily quickly gave up on the decrepit old shed and left to find adventure elsewhere.

Nature had never really interested her much as she lived in the city, but the trees and flowers were nice enough to look at for a little while. She even picked a few of the flowers she liked the most.

"You like nice," she spoke to the white flower before plucking it as well and adding it to the two yellow and one pink one she'd already collected.

Still holding onto her freshly picked flowers, she kept on searching around but eventually grew bored and left the immediate area surrounding the house. All the while she figured her grandmother wouldn't notice since a car had pulled up a little while ago and two old men went into the house.

Grandma Star being busy with company meant she probably wouldn't get scolded if she ventured too far so she tried not to think of her grandma telling those other old people about how she messed up and broke the cross.

Either they were called here to talk about the cross or to try and fix it but either way she just knew the older woman was telling the men that she was the one who broke it and it made her mad but there was nothing she could do about it.  
Pushing the thoughts aside, she picked up a long stick and started to drag it on the ground drawing a line just because she could while still holding onto her flowers with her other hand.

Looking up she saw something in the distance. A spot different than the rest of the surrounding area. It looked… dead.

A dead area she decided.

Nothing was growing, and the girl turned back to see the house but could barely make out the back of the place in the distance. She decided then to investigate the strange spot.

Dropping the stick, she had been dragging around, she ran toward the newly dubbed dead area. Once there she looked down at the grey ash like stuff while standing on the surrounding bits of dead brown grass. The ashy area was big. Like big enough to fit her parent's queen-sized bed and still have some left-over space.

"Did someone start a fire?"

Talking aloud to herself, she bent down and grabbed a fist full of the ash like stuff.

"…Guess so."

She brought it closer to her face to get a better look before letting it fall through her fingers like sand. With stained hands she bent back down and repeated the action before deciding she was bored again. So, she wiped her ash stained hand on the side of her yellow dress. Which in hindsight wasn't a good idea because she couldn't get it off of her hand completely or her dress afterwards.

Sighing the little brunette gave up. "Oh well Grandma probably has a washing machine."

With that in mind, she started to leave the dusty ashes behind only for the wind to pick up at just the right, or perhaps the wrong, moment because suddenly she was covered head to toe in ashes and just as suddenly the wind stops.

Wiping her face to clear it of the ash did nothing more than smear it further but not having a mirror handy the girl couldn't tell that she was only making it worse instead of better.

"The wind here is weird…"

As those words left her mouth she recalled the wind's voice from last night. The one that knew her name and called her 'little sister.'

"It was a dream… right?"

The wind didn't respond so she shook her head and laughed at her own childishness. Before leaving she felt the sudden urge to take one last look at the dead area. So, she did and she gasped at what her dark eyes landed upon.

"The stick…?"

The stick she had discarded earlier was there laying amongst the ashes and that was not where the surprise ended.

"Do you want to live forever?"

Her eyes scan the words before latching onto a second sentence below those words.

"I'll show you how. Lay down the flowers."

"The flowers?" Looking down at her hand still holding onto the flowers and back at the words again she did what any curious little girl would do. She laid the flowers down on top of the words.

After a few seconds of watching the flowers nothing happened. 

“Now what?"

The young Emerson started looking around for a sign; for the wind or something to change.

Seeing nothing around her she looked back at the flowers only to find them dead, completely dried out and crumbling. 

"…What? Um, hello?"

Something her grandmother said last night came to mind about not talking to strangers, even unseen ones, but her curiosity is a powerful force. Besides it's not like the wind could hurt her, right?

"Mr. Wind?"

Once again there was no response, but then she got an idea and went to collect some more flowers. Thus, she spent the next couple of hours gathering flowers to sacrifice to the dead area but that's okay because it was just flowers. And is it her or do the ashes look darker?

Soon enough it was evening and, tired and hungry, she braved her way back to the house but not before bidding the ashes a goodbye.

-

Opening the front door, she peered inside the front hall but didn't see her grandma anywhere in sight. So, she sneakily decided to make a run for the stairs to get to the bathroom without notice, only she didn't make it.

"Lilian, what in the world!?" 

It was her grandmother, whose voice sounded slightly horrified by her appearance.

Lily sighed at being caught but still managed, "It's Lily…"

The older of the two ignored that and marched up to the girl with her hands placed on her hips. "Look at you, what did you do? Roll around in the dirt?"

She stayed quiet but shook her head in a no fashion only to have ash fall from her head due to the movement. Which caused Grams to let out a noise that the young brunette was somewhat familiar with having heard it from her dad before.

"Alright. Come on young lady you need a bath."

Not arguing because she thought so too, she followed her up the stairs and into the bathroom. After starting the water Star turned to the little girl.

"I'll go grab you something clean so get out of those dirty things and into the tub before I get back."

"Okay…" She sulked as the door closed and did as she was told and was soon in the bathtub. As she starts to scrub away the soot-like substance the bath slowly got darker and for a moment almost seemed red but she blinked again and it was just normal dirty water. Her mind drifed to the magical flower draining ground or was it the wind?

She wasn't sure, but it was sure to give her something to do for the summer. Though what did it mean by live forever? Could she really… 

Before that line of thought could grow her grandmother was back with her clothes and started to help her clean despite her protests of being old enough to bath on her own. After bath time was over the two of them ate pizza that had been ordered. Despite being distracted most of the day, and even partly right now, Grams didn't forget her promise to make her granddaughter say grace. Luckily, she was able to wing it. Especially since she didn't have much of an example to go by last night, what with the bikers scaring her grandma like they had.

Tonight, though, that didn't happen. As the girl ate her dinner she was curious about what happened with the cross but decided against asking. She'd just look for herself on her way to her room tonight and even though it was early she was tired. Guess tossing and turning the night before, plus spending all day picking flowers for the wind, could do that.

Still, there was a question that had been on her mind since she saw those words and, well, in her eyes she couldn't see how such a question would be a bad one.

"Is there a way to live forever?"

Star gasped and nearly dropped her half-eaten pizza before slowly lowering it to her plate and trying to appear calm.

"Why would you ask such a thing?" 

Her grip on the dining room table's cloth was so tight that it wouldn't have amazed her if it ended up torn because of it.

Dark eyes fall to the table as she mumbled around her pizza, "…Just curious."

"No… it's more than that. Tell me why you're asking this." It was a demand, her father demanded answers a lot but still… This was scarier, as she couldn't understand the reason for the tone that was being used and it was much worse than her father's. She didn't like it.

"Never mind…"

Star tried to calm her breathing knowing that the small girl before her was clamming up and trying to force answers out of her wouldn't work right now.

"Alright… to answer your question no you can't live forever. Everything dies eventually… that's just the way things work."

Lifting her gaze up to meet a set of older wiser eyes, she nodded but she didn't believe her. If that was true she'd have said so at the beginning. Having been lied to by her dad enough times to know this was definitely the case right now. It made her wonder, if you could live forever why would someone lie about it?

Finishing up her pizza quickly, she said goodnight and rushed out of the dining room only to hear a call of 'don't forget to brush your teeth.' To which she replied with a yell of her own before glancing up at the wall where the cross was missing. In its place was a weird dead animal with antlers… it was worse than the cross in her option but at least she didn't have any dead things staring at her in her room.

Once upstairs and in bed she quickly turned out the lights and hoped that kept her grandmother from insisting on tucking her in like a child, or worse, getting her to say she was okay with dying in her sleep. Which, by the way, she wasn't.

Hearing footsteps outside of her door she quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. After a minute the door creaked open and a sigh was heard before her ears perked at the sound of the door being closed again and the footsteps slowly leaving.

Once it's silent she relaxed and shortly thereafter drifts off into a peaceful easy sleep.

-

Blinking her eyes in the dark. she yawned wondering what woke her up as it was still dark outside her window. It was nowhere near time to wake up. 

Then she heard it, "That's it awaken the night's still young."

Her eyes tried to find the sound of the voice but saw nothing even as another voice spoke, "Hello again, Lily."

It sounded like it was coming from right beside her and using the light from the moon coming through her window she can see the imprint on her bed someone was there.

"Who are you and why can't I see you?" 

Never really having learned the demanding tone from her father she pulled it off relatively well for once.

"I've already told you my name." It was the one beside her. 

"David?" She whispered and the air around her moved as if in a nod before continuing on, "As for what we are let's just say…"

"We're the wind."

It was another voice, but not the two from last night. A new one and it sounded like it was making a joke but instead of dwelling on that she asked, "How many of you are there?"

"…Just three." This time the voice was even softer, a wisp of what it usually was.

"You sound sad. Why?"

Do wind people have feelings? Were they really the wind?

"Because there used to be four…"

The first thing that came to mind is North, South, East, and West. Maybe the wind really is four different people?

"Where is he?"

Maybe he got lost?

"We're not sure."

How come they can't see each the other. It would be silly if they were invisible even to each other at least she thinks so. But who knew how invisibility really worked; not her.

"Why not?"

"Because we can't leave."

The wind can go wherever it wants to, though. She was starting to really think that they were not the wind.

"Why?"

"Because we're trapped here."

Not the wind then but what could they be? Ghosts… no, she remembers her mother saying ghosts weren't real and her mom has never been wrong before. Besides they're not scary like the things on TV.

"That's not fair…" Squinting her eyes she tried again to see something to prove that they're not ghosts but it didn't work.

"No, it's not… but you can help us." The voice beside her is clearer than ever before as he says those words. 

"I can? How?" Was this like something out of one of her storybooks? Was this the start of an adventure? She can't help but wonder and imagine.

"Never mind that now… Do you wanna fly?"

Her eyes widened. Did he mean like Peter Pan?

"Fly like for real? How?"

It was exciting and not for one second did she consider he could be lying to her.

"Open the window."

It is like Peter Pan then her mind supplies happily as she jumped up with an, "Okay." 

And opens the window as instructed.

"Now what?"

"Stand on the window sill." 

After climbing up and looking out at the ground from the second story window, she can't help but feel a bit nervous.

"Now what?"

A puff of breath hit her ear as a voice spoke quietly into it, "Now you jump."

Despite nerves, though, she wasn't overly scared. After all, she could jump out of her dad's slightly moving car and off of a moving swing just fine, too. So, if he said to jump then it would probably be okay to do so, after all he seemed nice.

So, she jumped.


	3. Secret Ghosts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *EDIT 10/28/18* Chapter beta'd by exaigon on Fanfiction.Net

It worked. She was flying, well more like floating, just outside her window, but it was still…

"Awesome," she squealed and heard a slight chuckle in the breeze. She couldn't see them but knew the three of them were right there floating too.

"It is, let's fly," David said with obvious glee.

It was like there was something invisible holding her up. She could almost feel it too, but before she could fully enjoy the fully flying experience there was a noise and she yelped as she is dropped a bit though something grabbed her quickly and before she knew it she was hanging by her hands from her window sill.

It was scary, and she almost started crying but a voice whispered, "I've got you." It was one of the other voices this time. "I'm Dwayne, little sister."

The cold wind like feeling had her hands and was around her waist too. She was safe but why did they let her go?

"Lily," came a worried shout from inside her room. It was her grandmother. Suddenly, solid hands found her own and pulled her back inside.

Her grandma was now holding onto her, hugging her, and the feeling from before was gone. Pulling back from her granddaughter she grabbed her by her shoulders to look her in the eyes and, after a quick once over to see that she was alright, asked, "Just what were you trying to do!?"

It was asked in a worried tone, but the raised voice made her lower her eyes her lower lip starting to tremble.

Just then she heard a familiar voice telling her to lie and it seemed to come from inside of her. It was all very confusing but... She listened.

"I... I saw a bird."

Star looked at the little girl in disbelief. "You saw a bird? How did that make you nearly fall out the window?"

"I wanted to pet it... so I opened the window, but I leaned out too far... and fell." She started out strong but mostly whispered the last part as tears started to fall. Thus, her grandmother dropped it, not being able to interrogate her crying granddaughter.

"Alright, it's okay... Just don't try something like that again... The fright alone may have taken several years off my life," Star only half-joked.

Lily nodded and wiped at her eyes.

"Why don't you come sleep with me tonight," The older woman offered.

"No! I'm not a baby. I can sleep alone!"

Star sighed, "I know you can, but I want you to-"

Shaking her head, the little brunette pressed on, "I promise not to do it again and I'll go right to bed!" After having said that, Lily scrambled up quickly from the floor and hopped onto her bed before pulling up her blankets. "See? I'm going to sleep now."

The older Emerson didn't appear too happy with the younger ones' decision but after getting up from the floor and closing the window, making sure to pull the curtains closed tightly so there were no more birds for the little girl to see and glancing around the room warily she relented with a sigh.

"Okay, but I'm leaving the door open and I'll be sleeping just across the hall in the spare bedroom if you need me." She kissed forehead before leaving.

Counting to one hundred slowly with her eyes closed the girl thought that enough time had passed so she quietly asked, "David... are you a secret?"

It's quiet a moment longer before the temperature dropped a bit and David's voice replied to her question with one of his own.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because you said to lie... You don't want Grandma to know you're here do you? Is that why you dropped me?"

Another laugh flowed through her.

"Sorry that was me. Your Grammy startled me but don't worry, I'd never let you get hurt."

"Paul's right. You don't need to worry. You're safe with us," the third voice, which she identified as Dwayne, spoke. It was getting easier to tell the voices apart.

"So, are you a secret?"

"Hmm, no your grandmother knows we're around. She just doesn't know that we're friends with you," David said thoughtfully.

"Would it be bad if she found out," Lily inquired.

"Yes, she's afraid of us," Paul chimed in, "but you don't have to be."

"I'm not, cause that'd be silly. Why would anybody be afraid of you?" Lily asked seriously.

"Why indeed," David stated more sarcasm than an actual question.

Paul laughed at his words, but Lily didn't understand the joke.

"People are scared of things that they can't see," Dwayne explained.

"Oh... well can you not be invisible then?" Her tone turned excited at the thought of actually getting to see the boys she was talking to.

"Being visible would take more strength than we have at the moment, unfortunately," Dwayne answered.

Lily pouted but then got happy again with her next question, "Then you'll be able to do it later?"

"Possibly," David added.

The smell of smoke surrounded her again and she wondered how someone invisible can smoke. But there was another question bugging her more.

"Are you guys ghosts?"

Her mom said they didn't exist, and she'd never been wrong before but... well it made the most sense, didn't it?

David again answered her question with one of his own, "If I said yes would that scare you?"

She shook her head back and forth. "No... so you're like Casper, then?"

A familiar voice started laughing hysterically at those words. Quickly, the girl sat up with a finger to her mouth. She shushed him while giving a warning, "Be quiet or you'll wake up Grandma!"

A slightly annoyed voice answered. It was David again.

"Your grandmother can't hear us and, no, we're not 'like' a cartoon ghost."

"Why can't she?" Lily continued to ask despite having, maybe, annoyed her ghostly friend. She was curious, though.

Dwayne was the one that answered, "She doesn't want to hear us, so she doesn't. It would take a lot of effort to talk to someone that isn't open to us."

The young girl just nodded, though, she didn't quite understand what he meant by open to them. Before she could think to ask about it the ongoing laughter distracted her as it only started dying down enough for him to speak.

"Oh man, if only Marko was here to hear that…" Paul laughs some more, "or even just to have seen that look on your face."

A grunt is heard, she thinks it's David, and he doesn't sound happy with Paul so he's probably talking about the look on David's face... Lily wished she could see it too but was once again distracted by something else.

"Marko? Like Marco Polo?"

The laugh that had died down after he spoke picked right back up. "If you ever meet him, you gotta say that!"

Dwayne sighed, "Don't tell her to do that. He'd hate it."

"I know but that's what would make it so funny," Paul laughed.

"Is he a ghost too?" The ever-curious girl asked.

"Probably," Dwayne answered while Paul yelped.

"Ow, why'd you hit me for? Stop rolling your eyes at me!"

"'Ow.' Really?" David questioned.

"It's a natural reflex," Paul said in his own defense.

"So, you're not sure if he's a ghost? Why not?" Lily asked with a slight giggle at Paul's antics.

"Because he's not here," David told her in a more somber tone.

"Where is he?"

Was this the one they mentioned before the little girl wonders.

"At our home still, I'd guess," Paul spoke wistfully.

"This isn't your home?" Lily asked in surprise.

"No," David answered simply and plainly.

"Then why are you here and not there," she questioned curiously.

"That's a long story... and you need your rest," David said in a no-nonsense manner.

"Aww, but-" Lily protested.

"Go to sleep and I'll tell you the story tomorrow night if you want."

"Okay." She wanted to know now but Lily had a feeling if she kept pushing he'd just get angry. She thought she had a pretty good inner mood meter detector. "Good night."

After they all give their good night responses Lily asked, "So I'll talk to all of you, tomorrow right?"

"Tomorrow night yes." Once again it is Dwayne that answered her question. He seemed to have the most patience for her curiosity she vaguely noticed.

"Why at night?" Lily asked while barely holding back a yawn. Guess she really was tired but the little brunette wouldn't admit that to them.

"Ghosts have to sleep too," a voice snickered. It it was Paul.

"Oh, that makes sense."

And to an eight-year-old it did. So, shortly afterwards she drifted off to sleep.

-

The next day Lily was with her grandmother at the kitchen table. Star had felt bad about not spending any time with her since her arrival and, wanting to ignore some of the strange things going on around her by pretending everything was fine, decided to make a day of it.

'It' being board games, which for the most part wasn't really what the youngest brunette wanted to do. She'd rather play video games or even go to the boardwalk but was recently told by her Grandma Star that she wasn't old enough… arguing that they had rides for kids like the Ferris wheel she wanted to ride didn't work in her favor, especially after what happened last night.

Currently, the two were playing Life after having played a long game of Monopoly and a short game of Clue already today.

"Stop. Get Married," Lily read before sticking out her tongue at the idea. "Do I have to?" She whined, which made her grandmother laugh.

"It's a part of life." Star handed the younger girl a blue figure to set beside her pink one in the car. Reluctantly she put it in the car with the character representing herself.

"Not a part of my life…" the girl muttered under her breath.

"You won't always think boys are yucky."

The older woman spun and also stopped at the get married spot.

"It's not boys but marriage. Which means kisses and… babies. That's the yucky part."

After all, why would she ever wanna swap spit with some boy or change a drooling baby's diaper? No way not her idea of a fun life. That was totally not in her future! As her favorite anime ninja said, 'Believe it!'

Star grabbed another blue figure and added it to her own car piece.

"Hmm, you'll change your mind… I know since I'm in the car I'll name the other one Michael," her voice was wistful as she spoke his name. "I know! You should name yours too," Star added more cheerfully.

Lily frowned and looked down at her car holding her pink and blue figures. She didn't want to marry but it was just a game…

She was still never getting married but if it's not real then who should she marry?

"Okay, I'll call him…" Pausing and giving it some thought, Lily grinned before saying, "David."

Her grandmother gasped, and she looked up in response, her own smile fading. "What's wrong?"

Star's hands trembled a bit as she fiddled with her own player piece. "Why… why did you choose that name?"

Lily shrugged. "I dunno. Cause I like it."

"Well… can you pick another one that you like?"

The girl frowned at those words and asked, "Why?"

Star set the little car figure down. "You know what? Never mind. I'm suddenly hungry. How about dinner?"

Not waiting for her granddaughter's response, she got up and went over to the fridge and started rummaging around.

Lily thought her grandma was being strange, but well, she's an old lady and old people were funny that way. At least that's what she decided to tell herself. Having nothing else to do, and not wanting to watch or help cook, she left the room and went to watch TV until dinner was ready.

Once again, there was nothing on the television so mostly she just sat on the couch zoned out staring at the screen. Earlier, before her grandma decided to make a board game day for the two of them, she'd found herself back at the spot with the dead ground and delivered it more flowers. Lily was pretty sure that's where her ghostly friend's bodies were buried but she didn't really want to think about that part of what being a ghost meant…

The dead part, meaning that her friends died… She didn't like death. It was scary.

The ghosts though, weren't. And they made this vacation interesting, at least the night part anyways. Her days were somewhat lacking but at least it was better than being at home would be.

Usually, the last thing she wanted was for the sun to go down because that meant she'd have to go to her room while her parents screamed about stupid things… even her mom but it was still completely her dad's fault she thought stubbornly. This summer though, Lily had just started counting down the hours until she could see, well not see but talk to, the ghosts again. Maybe tonight they could play a game… not a board game though.

"Dinner's ready!" A voice called pulling her from her thoughts but before she could make her way back to the kitchen her grandmother came to her with a tray.

"We're eating in here?" The young brunette questioned.

"I thought tonight we'd have dinner and a movie."

The girl agreed. Silently she is asking what movie because the channels here sucked, but Lily wasn't going to say that aloud.

Luckily, Star plugged in an old VCR player and had some tapes lying around, thus the two watched 'The Brady Bunch Movie' and ate grilled cheese and tomato soup.

After they finished eating Star went to the kitchen to drop the dishes off in the sink for later as Lily watched and laughed at Marsha getting hit in the face with a football. When Star came back she had some homemade chocolate chip cookies and milk. It was by far the most fun she'd had with her grandmother thus far. It was over too quickly. Luckily, that meant it was time to get ready for bed, which also meant her ghosts would come out soon.

"Make sure to brush your teeth really well after those cookies," Star told her, and she nodded while heading upstairs.

"I will!"

Inside her room, she changed into her nightgown, the one with the bunny hood attached to it. It was her favorite one and good at keeping her warm too. And since her friends made things a little cold, it worked despite it being summer.

Looking around her room for a sign that the ghost boys were around she decided they weren't around yet before doing as her grandmother told her and going to brush her teeth.

-

Downstairs, Star was doing the dishes after putting away the remains of the game Life. She wasn't going to be able to look at or play that game anytime soon… Of all the names her granddaughter could have picked…

Shaking her head, she dried off her hands and decided to go check on Lily. She walked up the stairs deep in thought and came to an abrupt upon hearing a voice.

It was Lily… Was she talking to herself? She's yet to hear her do so but maybe it wasn't usual for the little girl. With that in mind she continued her climb.

Until she heard laughter coming from the bathroom. That was a little strange. What could she find funny by herself? Walking up to the door, Star raised her hand to knock when she heard a second name she wished to never hear again.

"Stop it," Lily giggled. "Give me back my toothbrush Paul."

Star felt lightheaded. Her heart practically stops… This can't be happening.

Without a second thought, she slammed open the door to see Lily looking at her in surprise and a lone toothbrush covered in toothpaste laying innocently on the floor.

Silence rang throughout the house until Lily broke it.

"Grandma, are you okay?"

Lily thought she looked like she'd seen a ghost or something. That was impossible because her ghosts were invisible.

"Who," Star stopped to swallow past her dry throat, "Who were you talking to just now?"

Frowning, the girl once again heard a voice telling her to lie. Of course, she would. She didn't need to be told that to know that she should and would do so again.

"Nobody."

Star trembled and wished that were true. "Don't lie to me!" Her voice was raised and caused Lily's eyes to widen in response.

"I'm-I'm not… I was just talking to myself."

"No, no you weren't!" Star stormed forward and grabbed her arm before pulling her out of the bathroom into the girl's temporary bedroom. Letting go of her when she found what she was looking for, Star grabbed Lily's unused cell phone and thrusted it at the stunned girl.

"Call your dad."

Looking at the phone being handed to her and the woman holding it out, her lip starts to tremble. "Why?"

"Because you're going home!"


	4. Bloody Pizza

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *EDIT 10/28/18* Chapter beta'd by exaigon on Fanfiction.Net

Lily had just gotten to the bathroom when she felt something, no someone, watching her.

"Hello?"

"How was your movie?"

Lily turned around to face the area where Dwayne's voice was coming from. It was the doorway.

"You knew I watched a movie? Did you watch it too? Oh, I liked the part were Marsha got hit in the nose!"

"I wake up a bit earlier than the others usually, but I only caught the ending credits."

"Oh, do you like movies?" The little girl asked while getting her toothbrush out.

"Depends on the movie."

The girl nodded while putting some minty toothpaste on her Powerpuff Girl toothbrush.

"I like movies better at the movie theater. Oh, and drive-ins are the best... most of them are gone now though," she told him and he made a thoughtful hmm sound.

Then as Lily was about to brush her teeth the toothbrush is suddenly snatched away from her and starts brushing the invisible air beside her.

She giggled, "That one's mine get your own!"

Lily tried unsuccessfully to grab it, but it didn't work. Instead the ghost beside her jokes, "Clean teeth are important, and I just woke up so me first!"

She jumped up and down trying to reach it and someone flipped up her hoodie.

"There now you can hop around like a rabbit," Dwayne told her laughingly.

The girl pouted before pulling back the hood only to find the toothbrush hovering right in front of her face.

"Open up say, ah," Paul said in a sing-song voice and before she could protest he's brushing her teeth. Or trying to since most of the toothpaste ends up missing the inside of her mouth.

"Stop it!" She cried and somehow shoved him away, not realizing how much more solid he felt. Paul wiggled the toothbrush and she giggled again while telling him to give it back.

As soon as those words leave her toothpaste covered mouth the door slammed open startling her and the once floating toothbrush fell landing forgotten on the bathroom tile.

Why was her grandmother in here and why was she looking around the bathroom like she'd seen a ghost? That wasn't possible, after all, not even Lily could see her ghostly friends.

She wanted to, though.

Things had gone downhill rather fast after that. Lily was manhandled into sitting on her bed and trying not to cry as she dialed her dad's cell phone number hoping he wouldn't answer. Maybe she could hang up and tell her grandmother that he didn't answer. The girl was hopeful but as if reading her thoughts Star took the phone from her once she finished dialing the number.

Now all that was left to do was wait. Looking down at her feet she sniffled until her grandmother's angry voice made her jump.

"Damn it!" Star pulled back the cellphone from her face to see that the battery sign is flashing right before it turns off. "Where's the charger?" There was only one phone in the house and it had a cord and was downstairs, so the older woman knew this would be faster.

And she needed to work fast if her granddaughter was talking to those monsters.

Lily just shrugged only to have her grandmother ask again more firmly. So, the little brunette pointed to one of her unpacked bag. Star started pulling out everything looking for the charger only to empty the entire bag and not find it. Before getting frustrated and dumping out her other bag, getting the same result. Turning towards her granddaughter she demanded, "Tell the truth Lily, where is the charger."

The little girl looks confused, "It's in the bag."

Her grandmother huffed in disbelief before pulling her off of the bed. "Come on. I'm not letting you out of my sight."

The girl still felt upset, but it was leaning more towards angry now since she wasn't lying this time. It really was in the bag... her grandma must've just overlooked it because she was going through it too fast.

Following at a slow pace once her arm was let go of the two ended up in the hallway in front of the stairs.

"Where are we going?" Star looked at the upset child before sighing, "I'm calling your dad from the phone downstairs. You should know that hiding the charger is only delaying the inevitable."

"I didn't lie!"

Grams didn't believe her. "No more lying Lilian."

"It's Lily..." She's never had to actually tell her grandma that before, only her dad... She really was just like him. The little girl had wanted to be wrong about that given how nice her grandmother had seemed at times, but she really had been right at first... Her dad never listened to her either.

Ignoring the young girl who was close to tears, because of her thoughts and the situation, the older woman started to descend the staircase,

"Come on," Star called to the brunette from over her shoulder.

She could no longer stop the tears that cascaded down her face. She didn't want to leave!

"So, don't," Dwayne, who must have followed her from the bathroom, simplified the problem. She didn't once realize that she hadn't spoken those words aloud.

But how could she stay if grandma Star called her dad and made him pick her up?

A ghostly chuckle reaches her before the words, "Push her" were whispered in her ear by David who must have arrived sometime in the last few minutes.

"I don't want to," was Lily's barely audible reply.

"Yes, you do," Paul told her.

She was angry at being told she was lying and being made to go back home to her dad but that didn't mean she wanted her grandma to get hurt, did it?

"Just push her and you'll be able to stay with us."

David's words seemed less like a suggestion and more like an order. One that she felt like she should listen to more so than any other, even those her mother told her. But it was wrong…

Seconds seemed like minutes, minutes like hours as the voices started to blend together and soon she could not tell one from another as they continued egging her on. They wanted her to and were telling her to shove her grandmother down the stairs.

The more they spoke the more sense it all seemed to make.

It was the best, no, the only way to stay here... with them.

The little brunette continued following behind her grandmother.

"Do it!"

They were halfway down the stairs now and, as if possessed, Lily's hands moved of their own accord finding the back of the woman in front of her. Her grandmother.

She pushed.

The action felt freeing in a way that the young girl had never expected or experienced before.

Star gave a startled scream and tumbled down the remaining stairs while Lily just watched on in slight fascination. There was a snap but what woke the girl from her trance-like state was the small pool of blood that started to gather around her head.

Lily gasped and cried out, "Grandma!" Before running the rest of the way down the stairs.

Once at her grandmother's side she panicked, seeing the gash on her forehead.

"Grandma, wake up!"

Lily didn't know what to do or where to touch her. She could hurt her... even more than she already did.

Why did she push her!?

She didn't want to!

Was she dead?

"Don't worry she's not dead," David's voice reassured her.

"But she's bleeding..." The small girl whispered.

"Yes, she is," Paul's voice sounds stranger than she's used to. It was like he was longing for something, but Lily was too busy to ask about it. Instead she focused on the problem at hand.

"What do I do?" Was she asking them or just plain asking? The Emerson girl didn't know but Dwayne answered her anyway.

"We'll help you stop the bleeding. She'll be fine in the morning."

Even though Dwayne helped the others in telling her to push her grandmother down the stairs Lily still felt like he was telling her the truth. But she had to ask to be sure.

"Really?"

Her voice was hopeful, and the ghost soothed her fears, "Yes, now go get the first aid kit underneath the bathroom sink upstairs and a wet towel."

With that said she rushed back upstairs to do as she was told, still trusting the ghosts even after everything. They may have told her to do it but she was the one who chose to go through with it so it didn't make any sense to get mad at them when she was the one who hurt her grandmother in the first place; not them.

-

Back downstairs the three ghosts looked on for a moment before David bent down and touched the blood near Star's head. His hand didn't go through it for once.

Bringing his bloody fingers up to his mouth he tasted the blood while Paul and Dwayne watched his movements like hawks.

"Well can you taste it?" The blonde rocker looking vampire asked in excitement and hope.

David's expression changed, "Yes..."

The other two smiled and were quick to give it a taste themselves.

"Wow you're right! It's even better than I remember!"

"So, it's like Max said..." Dwayne said after he had his taste.

"Yeah... too bad we can't kill her yet."

Their leader looked down at the unconscious old woman.

"It's too bad the fall didn't do it for us," Paul told him

David smirked and shook his head. "No, I've got plans for Star and they don't involve a quick easy death."

Dwayne chuckled, "I didn't think they would. Hopefully, her head injury isn't serious I'd hate to have lied to the kid."

Paul just shrugged uncaring if it was. "The dog is long dead, so I don't care one way or another. Though I could get in the mood for some fried frogs in the future." He laughed with a toothy grin, "Yeah, some nice and crispy frogs."

"Sounds like a plan but first... what do you think about having some pizza tonight?"

The leader's grin was wicked, but Paul looked at him confused. "Pizza?"

Dwayne seemed to get their leader's meaning though. "I think he's asking how would you like a pizza delivery guy for dinner?"

"Wicked! Though is it too much to hope for a pizza delivery girl?" Paul asked hopefully.

-

Lily found the first aid kit after a bit of rummaging around and returned to her grandmother and the ghosts waiting for her. Even though she can't see them, the girl knows they're still there. It was almost like they weren't invisible anymore even though they still were. The young brunette couldn't explain it any better than that.

"Here it is. Now what?" She asked letting Dwayne direct her on how to clean the wound and then his invisible hands helped with wrapping it. Afterwards, she looked down to the big purple bruise on her leg which was bent at an awkward angle.

"Is it broken?" That was probably where the snap she heard came from.

"It'll be fine," David told her. Lily wasn't so sure and as if seeing her worry, he spoke again. "She won't be able to move around for a while but that just means you won't be sent away. That's what you wanted, right?

He wasn't wrong but that didn't make it right…

It's too late for that now, though, she tried to tell herself. Lily wanted to not feel so guilty and attempted to move her to the couch. It didn't work.

"She's too heavy... but I can't just leave her here all night..." Looking in the direction of the ghosts pleadingly made Dwayne offer to help which in turn got David to offer Paul's assistance. The two of them got her grandmother into bed. After Lily tucked her in, being as careful as she could be around her twisted leg, they all left the room.

"Do you think she'll be really mad tomorrow?" The little girl asked fearfully.

She probably won't even remember it. Paul said to cheer her up.

"...I hope so," Lily said with a glance back at the door leading to Star's bedroom.

The spot where she landed during her fall drew the girl's eyes away from the door and an uneasy feeling settled over her as she looks at the drying bloodstain.

"What are you thinking about?" David questioned her.

"I don't know why I did it..."

"Yes, you do... you wanted to stay," David told her plainly but hearing that didn't make her feel any better.

"I did... I do! But I didn't want to hurt her," Lily exclaimed.

"Maybe you did," Dwayne added gently.

"What? No, I didn't," the young brunette protested adamantly.

"Then why did you push her?" Paul joined in on the inquisition because that's what it felt like; an interrogation.

"I don't know!" She screamed in frustration as tears once again sprung to her eyes.

"I think that you do," David told her as something that felt like a cold hand brushed the tears from her eyes.

Lily backed away from the hand. "Because... because you told me to!"

"So, it's my fault?" David asks in a monotone voice.

This caused the little girl to pause. "I don't know..." Her voice sounded lost but thinking about it she didn't blame him. Not really... she didn't have to listen, but she did.

"You did what you wanted and now you feel guilty about it even when you got the results that you wanted. That doesn't make much sense now, does it?

David's words hit home because she did want to stop her grandmother, so she wouldn't be sent away. And pushing her down the stairs did make it so she could stay... she got what she wanted, didn't she?

Lily thought so…

"...No, I guess not."

His words made sense. Her mom was always explaining things to her, so this sounded reasonable.

"Do you want to know what I think?" Dwayne asked after a prolonged moment of silence.

Lily looked towards his voice, curious. "What?"

"I think you don't really care that you hurt her-"

Lily cut his words off. "Yes, I do!"

"Let me finish," He reprimanded her in a stern tone. She went quiet.

"You only care that the end result may have killed her and not because you didn't want that to happen, but because death scares you. I'm right, aren't I? You're afraid to die... maybe even just seeing it?

The girl froze as an image of a dead baby, her brother, came to mind before she shuddered and pushed the memory away forcefully.

"I... yes it's scary but... I mean... you-you're dead... aren't you?" She gathered her courage to ask, "But you're still here too. How?"

She was glancing back and forth between where she heard Dwayne's voice and where she last heard David's.

"Yes, in a way we are dead but also not... think of it as an in-between that we got stuck in," the quiet one explained.

"I don't understand..." She grumbled causing David to pick the conversation back up.

"Do you remember the words in the sand that day?"

It took a minute, but she nodded her head. "About living forever?"

"Yes." She can practically hear the smile in David's voice.

"Grandma said it's impossible... it is, isn't it?"

At the time she wasn't sure her grandmother was telling the truth but if you could live forever then wouldn't people know about it? So maybe her grandma was telling the truth? David's next words pulled her from her thoughts.

"No, it's very much possible in fact we're immortal that's why we didn't truly die."

"Really?" She was suddenly very interested and rapidly forgetting her guilt revolving around hurting her grandmother.

"Yes, so what do you say? Do you want to live forever?" David asked.

Lily didn't even have to think about it. Her response was instant, "Of course, but how?"

"It's not hard. Just do what we say and soon enough we'll all get what we want."

"Okay," she answered trustingly.

"Good," David replied.

"Now then first things first... let's order some pizza. We're starving," Paul chimed in.

"Pizza?" Lily questioned curiously, "You can eat?"

"We can now thanks to you," Paul said excitedly.

Lily didn't know what he meant by that but was happy to have helped her ghostly friends.

"Okay, I'll call for some pizza. What kind do you want?"

Anything as long as there's no garlic, Paul answers for them.

"Alright... I think Grandma's wallet is in the kitchen with the phone, so I'll go order the pizza right now!"

She rushed off to the kitchen to place the order.

That night Lily ordered two large pizzas, one half pepperoni and half cheese and the other a meat lovers, as well as a Pepsi and some brownies. It was more than enough for her three ghosts pals and her, especially since she'd already eaten and even kinda brushed her teeth. But that was okay. She figured she was a growing girl and she'd just brush her teeth again afterwards.

Watching a piece of pizza disappear bite by bite was more entertaining than the TV for Lily. It was also pretty great that she got the chance to learn more about them while they talked over brownies. All in all, her mini pizza party/sleepover thing with her ghosts was a grand old time.

Most of the pizza ended up in the fridge via her ghosts buddies as she fell asleep that night on the couch, completely forgetting to go back upstairs to brush her teeth like she'd planned, while late-night cartoons continued to play on the television.

Once they knew she was asleep the ghost boys left the house and went to the shed where they stored their real meal, the unconscious pizza delivery boy. Paul would usually complain about wanting to feed on a woman but after so many years without he wasn't nearly as picky.

The three dragged the human, who was slowly returning to consciousness, to the place Lily had dubbed as the dead area and made sure to spill as much blood as possible on their graves as they fed for real for the first time in years. The screams could be heard for miles but with no neighbors around it didn't matter.

Lily slept peacefully unaware of the horrific murder taking place in her backyard.

Ignorance was truly bliss for the little girl, at least tonight... Tomorrow would possibly be a different story.


	5. The Calm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *EDIT 10/28/18* Chapter beta'd by exaigon on Fanfiction.Net

The next morning Lily woke up on the couch with her bunny hoodie covering her face. Pushing it back, the little girl realized she was alone. Her friends must be sleeping and grandma Star…

"...I pushed her." She whispered with a trembling voice before shaking her head and getting up. Slowly she went to her grandma's room and cracked the door enough to peek inside. The bedsheets are rising and falling but that's it.

Her grandmother must still be sleeping so she decided to go upstairs to get cleaned and dressed first thing. So that's what Lily does. Going upstairs and avoiding looking at the bloodstain, she quickly grabbed a baby blue tank top with matching shorts and headed to the bathroom.

Once inside of the bathroom she noticed her toothbrush still on the floor covered with toothpaste. She took care of cleaning that first before taking a bubble bath and getting dressed. Looking into the mirror she was pleased that she got ready all by herself. After all, if she was really going to be living forever like David promised she needed to learn to be more independent.

Lily's less than pleased, though, when she tried to brush out her tangled hair by herself.

The little girl put the brush away after a moment and instead pulls out her hair ties and proceeded to put it up in lopsided pigtails. But she's happy with the end results of her first pigtails.

Heading back downstairs, the small brunette tried to decide if she should check on her grandmother but thought it'd be better to see if she could find something that she could feed to the older woman who probably wouldn't be able to move today.

It might make her less angry with her too.

Though, she hoped it's like what Paul told her and her grandma forgot why she fell down the stairs.

So, once in the kitchen she found the leftover pizza and, while she could eat that, something told her it wouldn't make her grandmother happy to have reheated pizza for breakfast. So instead, she decided to try her luck with the toaster. After a few tries on getting the settings right and a few burnt pieces she had to throw away, Lily made some edible ones.

That and some orange juice seemed like a good breakfast. If she knew how to make eggs that would have been better. She knew better than to start the stovetop, though.

So, after eating a piece of leftover cold pizza she brought her plate of toast and orange juice to her grandma's room and quietly set it on the table beside the bed. That's when the older woman stores from her sleep and the younger one tensed and wondered if she should flee or not.

Lily is indecisive just long enough for Star to wake up with a groan of pain, "Lil- what happened?"

She noticed the little girl beside her bed, the pounding in her head, and the sharp stabbing pain in her leg in that order. Star groaned and tried to sit up only to cause herself more distress.

"G-Grandma... I brought you some breakfast..." A little voice says sweetly but also nervously.

Star could care less about breakfast. She wanted some painkillers because she was in a world of pain, finally forcing her way into a sitting position. "Lily turn on the lamp..." The girl nods and turns on the bedside table lamp where she'd set down the plate of food just a few seconds ago.

Star pulls back the sheet and sees her leg, it's in an odd position and bruised something fierce... it was broken. Her head was hurting a lot, so it was hard for her to get a grasp on how it happened, but she knew she needed to go to the hospital.

"Lily I need you to call for an ambulance." The girl's eyes grew wide.

"Why?"

Star didn't feel up to explaining but the younger girl wasn't moving so she groaned.

"I need a doctor." The woman rubbed her aching head as the words left her mouth and winced at finding a knot there.

Lily was near panicking at the mention of getting a doctor. If the doctor said she needed to stay at the hospital, then someone would call her dad to pick her up... but if she needed a doctor Lily couldn't be selfish.

But she didn't want to leave…

If Lily left there'd be no more David, Paul, and Dwayne... She'd be alone again.

If she left she couldn't help them stop being ghosts or become immortal like them. It wasn't fair…

A thought comes to her then and the little girl brightened up some.

"I could take care of you, you don't need a doctor."

Star frowned and explained, "Lily my leg is broken. You can't fix it."

The older woman had hoped that'd be the end of it, but Lily wasn't going to give up. "I'll get you some ice and some Tylenol too!"

Without waiting for a reply, the little girl ran out of the room to get both of those.

Star tried to call after her but her head was pounding so raising her voice was a no go and another glance at her leg tells her that she should not be attempting to walk; even the short distance to the phone. She would just have to convince the child that while it was sweet that she wanted to help take care of her grandmother, it was also beyond what she was capable of.

While waiting for her to get back some things became less muddled and she could remember falling down the stairs, but how? She was headed downstairs to do something... to make a call, it was important.

Suddenly, it hit her like a jackhammer. Last night she'd heard Lily talking to herself... She had said the name Paul. Her insides felt frozen.

Her fall down the stairs wasn't an accident... it was them.

They had never had enough strength to do something like this before. Why now?

...It was Lily.

She needed to get her granddaughter away from here. She was in danger. As if called by her thoughts Lily ran back inside with a bag of ice and a bottle of Tylenol.

"Here you go!" She said holding the two items out as an offering.

"Lily, listen to me, we need to leave here. Call an ambulance."

The little girl frowned. "I can take care of you though, see." She motioned to the ice and medicine.

"I need more help than you can give me, and we need to leave before the sun sets."

"...Why?"

Finally losing her temper she yelled, "Just do as I say."

Star instantly regretted it because her head felt like it was about to explode and if that wasn't enough the little brunette looked close to tears as she drops the items on the bed and ran out of the room.

Star hoped it was to call for the ambulance like she told her to but as time passes the older woman started to doubt it.

-

Lily was upset so she ran out of the house and went to the dead area. It was the closest place to her friends at the moment and it cheered her up some because upon laying her eyes on it, she could tell that it looked healthier than it had the day before. Maybe that meant her friends were being less ghost than before.

The little girl liked that thought.

She stayed outside for a few hours drawing in the ashy sand and talking to the wind until the girl noticed it was afternoon and headed back to make some lunch.

Lily washed up quickly in the sink so as not to be dirty when she visited her grandma again. This time with an offering of lunch, a sandwich she made all by herself and glass of milk with a leftover brownie from the night before, she headed up the stairs.

As soon as she pushed open the door though her grandmother shouted, "Where have you been!?"

The girl nearly dropped the plate but steadies herself just in time. "Outside..."

That doesn't make the greying woman happy. "I've been calling for you for hours, I was so worried something had happened... We need to leave."

The girl shook her head and placed the plate on the bed and the glass of milk beside the half full glass of orange juice and the untouched toast... Okay she was a bit sad that her grandma didn't even take a bite out of her first attempt at cooking.

At least, she had the melted ice pack on her leg. See she could be helpful, Lily cheered before thinking that maybe she should get her some more ice.

Star couldn't believe this. Why wasn't she listening to her?

"Don't you shake your head at me. We are leaving right now, go get me your phone. If you won't call then I will." Lily froze as she recalled what caused all this to begin with and the older woman frowned as a memory comes to the forefront of her mind.

"Your phone's dead... and your charger is missing."

Lily started to deny having hidden the charger as Star paled.

"I believe you..." It was whispered but the little Emerson heard it and calmed down some. The woman's mind was racing. Her phone was dead, and her charger was missing and now she was bed bound. The only hope lied in getting Lily to call using the landline... they were cutting them off.

What would happen when night fell?

She needed to get Lily to make a call but for some reason she wouldn't listen…

It was their fault... those monsters had somehow gotten to her.

She needed to get Lily to listen to her and not them but who knew what lies they've fed her.

"Lily, I know you've been talking to those things. Those creatures you've been talking to they're not good, you shouldn't trust anything they've told you." Star tried to explain only to have the girl shut down on her. "Listen to me I know what I'm talking about. They're liars and monsters, they-"

"They're my friends," the girl interrupted with a shout. "They said you were scared of them and they were right! But they aren't scary," she explained loudly, much to her grandmother's distress.

"Lily you don't know them-"

She shook her head hard, making one of her pigtails come loose, "No, you don't know them!"

Once again, she ran from the room with Star trying to call her back. The headache from earlier had lessened but it most certainly didn't appreciate the volume of her voice. Still she couldn't give up. Star yelled until her voice became hoarse, but her granddaughter did not return.

Not until it was much later and the sun was nearly set.

Outside of the older brunette's room Lily announced her presence before going inside in case the other woman was just going to start yelling again.

"Grandma... I brought you dinner. It's leftover pizza I reheated."

Hearing no reply, she peeked inside. "I brought you more ice too."

Star was sitting up staring out the window with dread.

"I know you don't believe me," Her voice was strained from before, but the girl listened, "But if you would just call the number by the phone... and ask the person who answers to come over."

Lily wasn't sure if she should but seeing the defeated look on her grandma Star she relented, "Okay... I'll ask them to come over."

That seemed to bring a slight smile to her wan face as Lily left the ice and the plate of food and took the two from before stacking them on top of one another, so she could carry them.

Once Lily left the room, she put the dishes in the sink and then went over to the phone. A lone number is posted beside it on the wall.

"This must be the number."

Lily dialed it and after a moment a gruff voice answered, "Hello."

Before she can say anything, the phone is removed from her hand and put back on its hook. Startled, Lily gasped and looked at the transparent hand still on the phone before turning around and seeing an actual person.

A see-through person.

He smirked, "Sorry, little sister, but the Frogs aren't in this part of the script."

"David... is that you?"


	6. Before the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *EDIT 10/28/18* Chapter beta'd by exaigon on Fanfiction.Net

Squatting down to be at eye level with the little girl, he answered, "Who else would I be?"

He was see-through and she couldn't make out any colors other than whites and greys, but Lily was finally able to see him and that excited her. Lily giggled happily before trying to hug him only to go right through him. Thankfully, she didn't fall flat on her face because another hand grabbed her.

"Careful there, little flower." It was Dwayne's voice.

Looking at the person who caught her, the little girl discovered he was just like David, all colorless except for the colors of the wall behind him. He let go of her arm once he was sure she wouldn't fall.

"We're more visible now but we're not always solid, it takes a lot out of us still," he explained, and she nodded.

"Okay, I understand." Lily turned to look back at David. "Sorry I fell through you that was rude… probably?"

He just laughed and reached out to pat her on the head.

"It's fine. One day soon you can hug me if you still want to."

She smiled up at him as he removed his hand after the quick pat. "Really? Do you promise?"

"Sure."

Suddenly another voice joined in, "You wanna hug me, too right?" It was Paul.

Looking over she saw him walking down the stairs and grinned, "Of course!"

He looked happy at that and joined them. Then something occurred to the child. "Why were you upstairs?"

"Hmm, oh well I guess I sleep up there," was his vague reply.

"Really? Where at?"

He kneeled down to her level and whispered, "That's a secret."

"Why?"

David rolled his eyes and grunted, "The bathtub."

Paul glared and grumbled at his leader's words.

Lily blinked confused. "That sounds uncomfortable… why there?"

Dwayne gently explained to her that they have to return to the area that they died during the day. Lily frowned at that, not wanting to think of something like that happening to them before looking at Paul and asking, "Did you drown in the bathtub?"

David laughed, and Paul glowered but before he could tell her otherwise Dwayne spoke up, "Something like that… don't worry once we come back completely it won't happen again."

"Are you sure?" She asked worriedly.

Dwayne nods. "I am. We're all gonna live together, forever right?"

She smiled in return. "Yes!"

Then another thing occurred to her and she looked at a pouting Paul. "Did you take a bubble bath with me then?"

"Huh?" Paul muttered confused.

"I took one this morning… why didn't you say anything?" She huffed because if he was there they could've played with the bubbles together.

"Oh well, I was asleep and not visible or solid. Sorry." She nodded and then thinks of something else.

"Will I still be able to see you tomorrow during the day since I can see you now?"

David is the one to answer next, "Good question… I don't think so though."

"Oh." She looked down sadly.

"No need to be sad in fact we're almost back for good now."

Hearing David say that she looked back up, eyes sparkling. "Really?"

This news excited the brunette and her eyes darted back and forth between them to make sure they weren't joking.

Paul grinned, and Dwayne answered for them, "Yes, a few more nights at most."

"Yay!" Lily giggled, jumping up and down, and clapped happily in an impromptu dance. Paul decided to clap along too, and Dwayne rolled his eyes at the childish action coming from the other ghost.

David just smirked at her reaction "Glad to see that makes you so happy… because we need you to do something for us."

She calmed down quickly and asked innocently, "Okay, what?"

Before she can get a reply, though, her grandmother's voice called out, "Lily are you still on the phone?"

"Oh, right I forgot. Grandma wanted me to invite someone over…" Her voice trailed off before she looked back to David. "Why did you hang up the phone?"

Again, she didn't get an answer because at that exact moment the phone rang but Paul stepped in front of it when she went to answer it. Lily looked confused, "Why-"

Ring… Ring…

"Lily if someone comes over right now we can't be around and since we don't get to be here during the day… do you understand?"

Ring… Ring…

"…So, invite them over during the day?" The phone was still ringing but she already decided to not answer it, so the girl paid the ringing no mind.

"Lily answer the phone!" Her grandmother's voice called out.

"No during the day won't work…" David looked up in thought and then as if he suddenly found the answer he looked towards Paul who nodded and vanished.

"Where'd Paul go?" She asked worriedly.

"It okay. He's just going to get something ready to help us come back… you'll see him before you go to sleep tonight." Dwayne explained calmly.

Then David said, "Invite your grandmother's friends over. Tell them she wants to see them at eleven thirty."

Lily was confused again. "She never set a time though…"

"I know but you want to help us, and your grandmother too, isn't that right?" Dwayne asked softly.

"…Yes." Could lying make them both happy?

"Then can you do that?" Dwayne questioned.

She looked between the two before giving her answer. "Okay."

With that, she went to the phone and started to dial the number again only to have a voice whisper beside her, "Don't mention us. If he asks you don't know why she wants them here."

Nodding, the girl finished dialing and waited for someone to pick up.

"Hello?" The gruff voice greeted again, only this time he sounded kind of worried. "Hi…"

"…Your, uh, Lily, right?" He must've just woken up because his voice was funny sounding.

"Um yes… my grandma-" before Lily can tell him what her ghostly friends want her to say he cuts her off with, "We'll be right over-"

"WAIT!" She shouted and then looked to David and Dwayne who motioned for her to continue, "What?" The voice over the phone asks a bit startled.

"Um she wants you to come over at eleven thirty…" Lily was wondering if he believed her when he replied with, "…Why?"

"I dunno… it's just what she said."

"Hmm, can I talk to her?" This has the girl pausing again and not knowing how to answer so she looked at David again for help. He just shook his and whispered, "She's taking a nap."

"She's taking a nap." The girl parroted.

"…Why did it take you so long to reply." The weird sounding man over the phone asked suspiciously.

She came up with a reply on the spot, "Because I went to see if she could talk to you and she was napping."

"Are you sure she was taking a nap?"

"Of course, silly. Why else would she be laying down?" She made sure to say it like she thought that he was dumb for asking.

"Did you check her breathing?"

"Stupid my grandma isn't that old! Besides, she snores, and you have to breathe to do that."

"Alright, alright…" She heard talking in the background and he said something to someone else, but her ears didn't catch any of it.

"We'll be there." Then without another word, he hung up.

"That was rude…" She looked at David. "Did I do good?"

"You did great." That made her happy to be praised by her friend.

"LILY!" Her grandmother's voice sounded both strained and worried, so the little girl went to see her.

"Yes grandma?" She queried when she entered the room.

"Why didn't you answer me before?"

"I was on the phone…?"

Star wasn't convinced but let it go to ask another question, "And are they coming over?"

"Yup, they are."

"…Okay, good. That's good. Until they get here I want you to stay in here," Grams ordered but Lily shook her head.

"No. I'm gonna go watch TV."

"No, you will do as I say!" Her voice cracked, and it wasn't that loud, but Lily got the message and frowned before plopping herself down on the ground moodily. "It's for your own good."

Lily didn't believe her. Grown-ups said that whenever they wanted something kids didn't. It was just an excuse.

For a few minutes, the girl sat there quietly until a knock was heard and Star looks to her leg and sighed, "Go answer the door and then come right back understand?" The girl nods and jumped up to go answer the door.

-

Lily was quick to leave her grandma's room behind but upon getting to the living room and not seeing her ghost friends she went to the hallway. Seeing the coast was clear, she opened the door hoping that it wasn't the funny sounding guy from the phone call because David didn't want him here until later.

Standing outside was someone she'd never seen before. He was old. Not as old as her grandma but maybe her dad's age?

"Hello?" She asked hesitantly.

"Hello there, you must be little Lily."

Definitely not the phone guy.

She nodded, "How do you know my name?"

"Why I'm a good friend of your grandmother. My name is Max… Can I come in?" Lily shook her head no because something was off about him. "Not right no. Grandma's resting. I'll say you came by, though."

His friendly façade faded fast and suddenly he looked demonic.

"Let me in now, you stupid little girl!" He snarled and tried to force his way in only to be met with the door being slammed in his face courtesy of David

"David!" Lily nearly forgot herself and tried to hug him.

"That man was scary… I think he was a monster!"

David just patted her head. "Well you're not wrong," he grinned before taking her hand in his colder one and pulling her away from the front door.

"Dwayne." David called once they entered the Living Room where he let her hand go. Dwayne appeared from thin air beside the other ghost. "Looks like Max is trying to make his move tonight too."

"…I was afraid of that," Dwayne frowned.

"W-Who is he?" Lily asks confused.

"Don't worry he can't hurt you," Dwayne said comfortingly. "Don't listen to him and don't let him inside and everything will be alright."

"He can't come inside…?" The little brunette had to double check.

"No, we forced him outside some time ago and, without someone letting him back inside, he's stuck," David explained to the scared girl, but she didn't understand it all that well.

"So, I can't go outside?" She asked somewhat fearfully.

"During the day is fine. But he can't hurt you at night either because he doesn't have the power… He spent it all on looking alive just now he's no threat…"

"That won't stop him from trying to talk to you if you go outside during the night," Dwayne warned.

Lily didn't understand but she was doing her best. "Why does he want inside?"

"He wants to come back the same as us and the first step is getting inside of the house during the night. During the day we are connected to two places the one we died and the spot our bodies are buried."

"…The dead spot?" Lily queried.

Dwayne laughed a bit, "An adequate name for it, yes…"

"Hmm… was that Max-monster inside like you. Because you said you made him leave?"

David smirked at the new nickname for 'Max' before Dwayne tried to explain.

"Technically, he died inside of the house, but the spot was moved outside so it wasn't that hard, even when we didn't have the access that we do now."

That sounded complicated. Lily was glad not to be dead because it was confusing and scary. She couldn't forget that part.

"The access?" She questioned while sitting down on the couch.

"You let us in," David told her.

Lily was trying to remember when she did that but came up blank. "I did?"

"Yes," The ghost said simply but the girl wasn't satisfied with that answer, "But you didn't knock on the door…" She shivered recalling the monster at the door.

"We didn't need to. You wanted friends and when we talked you listened and spoke back."

Lily chewed on her lower lip before looking at the both of them. "And that helped you?"

"It did." They both said it, so it must be true.

Suddenly she remembered her grandma, "Oh no, I forgot I have to go back to Grandma's room."

"Don't worry about it your grandma fell asleep," David chuckled as she jumped off the couch.

"Really?"

"She must have been tired," Dwayne supplied before adding, "Have you had dinner yet?"

Lily shrugged. "I heated up some pizza before."

"Let's see if we can find you something else for dinner." Lily followed after Dwayne only to stop and look back to David, but he wasn't there.

"Where did David go?"

"He's helping Paul with something. Don't worry you'll see them both before bedtime."

The girl didn't like it but if it was something to help them come back, then it couldn't be helped.

"Am I going to bed before grandma's friends come over?"

"That's for the best I think."

She didn't like that it was almost a grown-up response, "Why?"

"Do you like pancakes?" Her eyes widened, "Yes!"

Dwayne spent the next couple of hours distracting the girl.

-

Shortly after Lily left to go answer the door Star was waiting and hoping for the Frog brothers to arrive in just a few more moments but as time passed she began to worry.

Making up her mind the old woman decided to call out to her granddaughter, "Lily!"

No response. It shouldn't surprise her by now… That girl just refused to listen to reason.

"Lily!"

Seconds after shouting the room grew cold. "She can't hear you."

That voice!

"Paul! No get out, I didn't let you in. Leave now!" She clutched the cross necklace around her neck as the voice laughed and a see-through figure appears. "Come on now Star. You're hurting my feelings."

"Begone evil spirit!"

Paul nearly fell over gripping his stomach in laughter, "Really Star. You're too much!"

"I don't understand. I'm telling you to leave but you're still here. How?" It always worked in all the years she'd lived there. She'd been able to drive their spirits away.

"Should be obvious by now shouldn't it?" He was mocking her by mouthing, 'Lily.'

"Lily!?" Star cried out. Intellectually she'd known it, but she had wished and prayed that she was wrong.

Yesterday Lily had said Paul. If only Star had gotten her away then.

"You evil monster. She's just a little girl!"

Star's voice annoyed him, so he decided to get back at her by scaring her a little. "Yeah so? I'm an evil monster, aren't I?"

"Leave her alone!" She grabbed the plate beside her bed and threw it at him. It went through him and shattered against the wall. He just rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about her right now."

"You can't touch me! You're dead!" The plate couldn't touch him, so he couldn't touch her. That was her logic reasoning.

"You're right I'm dead but I can touch you… Want me to prove it?" He wiggled his fingers at her before suddenly stopping as the temperature dropped even further.

"Stop scaring the old lady. We wouldn't want her to have a heart attack before the main event."

If she was panicking before, now her whole body was shivering. Star had hoped to never hear his voice again. "David…" His ghostly figure appeared beside Paul just as his name left her trembling lips.

"You look old, Star."

He looked the same as in her memories, although a lot less solid, still no less terrifying.

"…Leave us alone… please," she begged.

"Sorry Star, but you know I can't do that." He wasn't sorry, and Star had forgotten that pleas had never moved the monster in front of her. No, she was doomed.

"She's a child please don't hurt her…"

David smirked, "Star, Star, Star… I can't make that promise. Though, perhaps if you do something for me I'll leave the girl alone."

Star glared and snarled, "No you won't, I know you! I won't fall for your games this time David."

"Hmm, well on the off chance that I'm telling the truth… Can you really say no?"

"You. Are. Dead… So long as you stay dead we're safe." Star was trying to convince herself, but it wasn't working.

"Guess I'll have to give you a demonstration then." That said he walked closer ignoring her cries for him to 'stay back'. He sat down on the bed.

"How's the leg. Is it painful?" He touched it and she tensed and tried to jerk away but he gripped it tight. "You know vampires don't have to deal with such problems like broken bones..."

Then he dug his fingernails into her flesh and she cried out, "What do you want?"

"I'm glad you asked." He lifted his hand to his mouth and licked the blood from his fingers slowly. "We need blood to come back, a lot of blood. So, what do you say? Either you get it for us or we get Lily to get it for us. I'm sure she won't mind seeing as we're her friends."


	7. The Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *EDIT 10/28/18* Chapter beta'd by exaigon on Fanfiction.Net

Dwayne was able to keep Lily distracted by teaching her how to cook pancakes. The girl was very eager to learn but also very good at getting messy. While cooking he also told her funny stories, mostly about Paul and a friend of theirs named Marko. They'd mentioned him once before and from the sound of it, he was funny like Paul.

Pancake batter was smeared on her face, but she didn't seem to care or even notice as she laughed, "So, Marko really can talk to birds? That's sooo neat, can he teach me to do that?"

The ghost let out a vague noise, but the happy girl didn't pay it any mind as she continued, "And he got one to leave worms in Paul's hair while he slept. That's gross but kinda funny!"

Dwayne nodded.

"He wouldn't do that to me though, right? I don't like worms…"

Dwayne assured her that he would protect her from Marko's pranks when they met one day and the two continued their impromptu cooking lesson along with the storytelling session. That story of Marko's bird and worm prank was just one of the many pranks and hijinks he told her about during their conversation.

Also, Lily was happy to know she'd meet Marko too someday and the idea of having another friend made her happy. As did the promise to make sure he kept worms away from her. The birds would be okay, though, she was sure. Despite never having seen a real one up close, they didn't wiggle around and have no eyes... things without eyes were creepy.

Shortly after that, they ate, or rather she did, and then they cleaned up both the kitchen mess and the one on her. Around that time was just after nine when David and Paul came back and, to her disappointment, told her she should get some rest.

"But it's not even that late…"

"True but those friends of your grandma will be coming over and trust us they're no fun at all," Paul told her truthfully.

She pouted, "That's hours away though."

"Unfortunately, it's not. I have really good hearing and they said they would come over sooner than we invited them so off to bed," David said to the young girl.

"The weird voiced guy said that?" She got a nod in response and frowned. "He really is rude! He should get grounded." Lily folded her arms and mumbled, "Or a serious time-out!"

Paul grinned widely, "I couldn't agree with you more."

"However, that means good little girls need to get ready for bed now," Dwayne cajoled, and she huffed.

"Don't worry. One day you'll be able to stay up all night long with us and we'll have a blast." David promised.

"Yeah late-night parties are great with us. You'll love it," Paul added while pumping his fist up in the air.

Lily smiled at them before uncrossing her arms to hold out her pinkie. "Promise?"

They all thought she was being adorable, but David wouldn't give into it so he looked to the others with a raised eyebrow knowing one of them would. It was Dwayne who offered his pinkie finger in a promise. With that the boys made sure she was tucked into bed. David waited by the door while Dwayne tucked her in with a, "Good night, little flower."

Paul grabbed a stuffed dog that he saw laying in a pile of her things, that seemed to have been dumped out, and gave it to her to cuddle before they all took their leave. Only Paul turned invisible and went back through her bedroom door afterward to wait and make sure she actually fell asleep.

About half an hour later she did, thankfully, because the vampire spirit was getting antsy. It was almost like she knew he was there with how long she watched the door before her eyelids dropped closed and her breath evened out. That couldn't be it, though, or she would've said something he reassured himself.

After that he quietly left and went to the kitchen to grab a chair before bringing it back up and shoving it underneath her doorknob. Because even though they silenced her room like they had with Star's earlier that night, one could never be too careful. Both David and Dwayne agreed on that.

Paul guessed they had a point, though. Now if she woke up there wasn't a chance for her to see anything she wasn't supposed to. He was doing her a favor really. Wouldn't do to scare her this early on.

That done he met his fellow ghosts downstairs.

"Lily asleep?" David asked from his position against the wall. He didn't actually need to lean on anything but the fact that he could do it was reason enough to.

Paul nodded. "Yeah and locked in."

David stood up straight to stop wasting his energy and glanced up listening for her breathing before determining Paul wasn't mistaken.

"Good now we wait. Only twenty more minutes until they're set to arrive."

"The kid was right though. We really should punish them for arriving before they were told too," Paul said wickedly.

"What did you have in mind," their leader asked.

"Well if the bathroom wasn't so close to Lily's room, I'd say that they could both probably use a bath but another time, maybe?" He looked hopeful and David just grinned.

"Maybe."

While Lily's room was silenced, and she would not hear anything taking place upstairs, if they did go up there it wouldn't do to have noisy frogs opening her door and waking her up. So for now they'd stick to the plan.

"So, is everything ready then?" Dwayne asked. He'd not done anything except distract Lily for the last few hours and was only able to glean the goings on from their shared mind. It wasn't the same as seeing what was being done, though so he decided to ask.

"Yes, and this time we have the home field advantage," David stated.

They boys were still sore about that one and now was their chance to rectify it and get some good old revenge at the same time.

"Do we need to worry about Max?" Paul finally decided to bring up the one person, or rather problematic thing, that had been bugging him since earlier this evening.

"No, he's powerless tonight given that display earlier." David knew he'd not be able to so much as try and whisper to anyone among the living at least for tonight.

"The question is when and where did he get that energy?" Dwayne inquired.

"Good question…" Their leader wasn't sure either and that was worrying because if he got it once then he could do it again. No way it would happen fast. That was probably years worth of energy that he blew all at once.

"…Maybe he ate our leftover pizza man?" Paul added seriously. The other two looked at him in surprised silence for a moment before considering the possibility that he might actually be onto something.

"It's actually likely that he pulled some energy from that meal, but we didn't leave that much," Dwayne responded just as solemnly.

"He's like a vulture so he'd make due," David declared before looking at the clock.

It was almost time but there was one more person to talk about before they got into position. "And Star won't be an issue?"

Dwayne was the only one who hadn't seen her tonight and he knew that the woman could be a nuisance if left unchecked.

They all knew that as she had been a thorn in their side almost from day one. Out of all of their mistakes she was the worst. They all believed that even Michael hadn't been as bad of a mistake and he was the one that actually offed David. Well, he was dead himself now and he, unlike them, wasn't coming back.

"Nah, not tonight. She's out cold. But don't worry, tomorrow night things will get interesting," David answered confidently.

"I thought that was tonight?" Paul tilted his head in confusion.

David smirked, "Tonight's the appetizer. Tomorrow's the main course."

"I can't wait," Paul licked his lips dramatically.

-

Edgar and Alan Frog had known the Emersons since they were both young and fresh vampire hunters. They had met and saved many family's lives as well as many people over the years, but it was the Emersons that they stayed in touch with.

Though for a brief time they had lost touch with Star and Michael when they moved away and married. After the death of Michael's mom, the couple moved back to Santa Carla and into the house Lucy had left them. The house that was left to her when her father passed.

The very same house that the Frog brothers were convinced the Lost Boys evil spirits still plagued.

In fact, Edgar was sure that was what caused the elder Emerson's brother's death five years prior. Alan wasn't as convinced. Oh, he believed that the vampires they offed left something of themselves inside of that house that remained to this day but he believed Michael's death had been as it appeared to be; a simple accident.

Because Alan knew without exception that whatever still remained of the vampires that once terrorized them could not possibly harm anyone and the Emersons would never do something like let a vampire or the remains of one into their home, their lives, again.

No, it was unthinkable.

Even they weren't that stupid.

Edgar, however, thought that once a vampire always a vampire even if it was only a half-vampire and thus, he believed that Michael gave in because he couldn't help himself and now he was sure that Star was headed down the same path. It was Alan, though, who was worried that the little girl, the granddaughter, might actually be the one in trouble.

He'd warned Star against letting her stay, but she promised to have a stern talk with her granddaughter and explain to never let in strangers. He had a feeling that talk would or did go over the girl's head as the strangers in question could be invited in by will instead of words.

Whatever the case may be both brothers hoped they would be wrong and that once they arrived that things would be fine. But that incident with the cross still clung to both their minds and so they were coming prepared.

Holy water, crosses, stakes, exorcism books, talismans, prayer beads. The works.

They had fought these enemies once before and were confident in their ability to do so again if the situation called for it.

-

Pulling into the Emerson's yard they saw the porch light on and looked at each other and then to the clock on their truck which read.

10:12 p.m.

"Are you ready for this?" Edgar asked his brother while shoving an extra vial of holy water into his jacket.

"I was born ready," was Alan's reply as he checked the prayer beads around his neck before grabbing whatever else he might need.

Then the two got out of Edgar's truck and slowly surveyed their surroundings. Alan glanced to the padlocked shed. It looked the same as ever but they both gave hand and eye signals that only they would understand before they decided to approach it cautiously with Edgar in the lead, his gun full of wooden bullets, and Alan bringing up the rear with his crossbow.

After ten minutes of circling the shed, Edgar tried to see inside. Upon seeing nothing suspicious, he yanked on the door and then jumped back raising his gun, but nothing happened. The door remained locked.

"…Alright, the shed's safe," Edgar grunted at his brother who then nods and they both spread out and carefully walk around the house from front to back and then back to the front.

"Yard is clear," Alan told him and his brother nodded.

"…Time to check out the house," Edgar's gruff voice said as they both quietly approached the porch. Once they were both standing at the door Alan looked at his watch. It read 10:37 p.m.

Still earlier than planned so if this was a trap they still had the advantage. As Edgar raised his hand to knock on the door it creaked open in the slight breeze and both brothers jumped back.

"Edgar it's open!" Alan shouted in surprise.

"I know that! Come on, let's go!"

They nodded together before bursting in with weapons raised.

-

A few minutes before found Paul looking out the window bored, "If I wasn't already dead this boredom would kill me…"

David snorted, "Even I didn't think they'd still be in the yard after arriving nearly half an hour earlier. Talk about paranoid."

Dwayne just stood stoically in his corner by the broken stereo waiting patiently and Paul wondered vaguely how he did that. If only Marko was here to kill the boredom right now he'd be great. He looked back outside expecting not see any change.

But he does. They're finally walking to the front door.

"Oh, I think they're coming," Paul exclaimed.

"Finally!" David's tone is nothing short of annoyed. If he hadn't been so determined to stick to his plan he would've already gone to get them in the yard. But, no, this time their prey would come to them, not the other way around.

That was his last thought before the idiots that called themselves vampire hunters burst inside weapons raised.

Only to see an empty hallway. So, the two ran into the Living Room with a battle cry only to find that it too was empty.

"Think we scared them away?" Edgar whispered to his brother as they both scanned the room with their eyes. Nothing looked out of place but the rug at the foot of the stairs.

Was that rug always there? Alan thought before brushing it aside as unimportant.

"Maybe… but let's check the whole house to be sure," Alan whispered back.

David was at first amused that they charged in screaming. Now the two were whispering like they wouldn't know of their presence by now given their entrance. He hadn't really known what morons the two were when they helped kill him and the boys. Over the years he's witnessed their absolute stupidity and wondered just how they could've been taken out by such a rag-tag team of imbeciles…

It hurt his pride… He'd make them pay for that.

The ghosts watched as the two did those weird hand motions again before they started to look around the room. Moving from the livingroom to the kitchen and to various other rooms, they finally stopped in front of Star's room.

Edgar pushed the door and it opened easily enough. Then nodding to one another they charged in ready for anything. There was nothing. No sign of Star. Just a bed that didn't look slept in and an otherwise empty normal bedroom with no sign of foul play.

"Guess this means we go upstairs now?" Alan asked and Edgar barely agreed before suddenly the light went out and the door slammed shut resulting in the two scrambling for the door and the light switch.

"The light won't come on!" Alan screeched out at almost the same time as his brother yelped, "The door's locked!"

Even as he said this, he kept jiggling the handle in hopes that it would open. Alan, on the other hand, pulled out his trusty flashlight and turned it on, only to have his shaking hands drop it as the room turned icy cold.

"It's them!" Alan screamed as his brother abandoned the door for the flashlight on the floor. With flashlight in hand, he twisted around the room looking at everything but seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

Alan gathered his wits enough to hold out a cross in front of him and pull out the exorcism book. "It's too dark I can't read it!"

Edgar shined the light on the book with one hand and firmly held the gun with the other. When Alan started reading the ancient Latin words things started to fly around the room, some hitting them but most hitting the walls. It was absolute chaos but neither realized it was mostly harmless. Still Alan powered through stuttering and butchering the words as if his life depended on it and then it all abruptly stopped. The light came back on, the door opened, and everything floating stopped and dropped to the ground.

"It worked! I did it," the man cheered, and Edgar nodded wondering how much more they could charge for exorcising vampire spirits.

"Boo!"

He screamed and dropped the flashlight as a translucent form appeared directly in front of him.

His now free hand helped to grip his gun and, without thought, he fired with a long scream. The wooden bullets passed right through the apparition who laughed and vanished as a cry and thud reached his ears.

"Alan!" He rushed to his brother's fallen form.

"You shot me!" His wounded bleeding brother cries out in pain gripping his side where blood is seeping through. "No, it was that twisted sister reject. I shot him!"

Alan just groaned in response as laughter reached their ears, "Don't bleed out on us now, that'd be so anticlimactic!"

Edgar turned and raised his gun in the direction he heard the voice come from.

"Where are you aiming? I'm over here." It taunted. So, he turned again to another spot and seeing no one again nearly cried from frustration. Then a voice whispered right next to his ear, "I'm behind you."

He whirled around and shot again only to stop quickly and gasp, "Alan!"

His brother grunted, and Edgar dropped the gun in disbelief at having shot his brother again, "That's- but you were-"

He looked to the spot he'd last seen his brother and saw nothing, not even a drop of blood. Looking back to the image of his brother in front of him whose stomach is bleeding, the previous bullet wounds were nowhere to be seen. Was this all a trick?

Edgar jumped away from him in confusion. "Stop playing mind games you sick bastards!"

He shouted and heard more than one voice laughing now. He can't tell how many there are or where they're all coming from. Not being able to take it, he ran from the room leaving his brother who isn't really his brother he tells himself.

"Alan!?" He called out hoping to find his real brother but not seeing anything.

Edgar can't leave without him, so he made his way back to the Living Room and screamed for him again, "Alan, where are you?"

Looking towards the stairs he ran for them only to feel the cold sensation come back full force. His breath was coming out fast and the elder Frog brother could plainly see it given the temperature. That didn't stop him from nearly making it to the top. Before he could crest the stairs he felt something behind him and spun around fast to see a smirking figure standing two steps away from him.

"Stairs are a dangerous thing. Humans should be careful not to trip and fall down them."

His mind flashed back to Michael and he suddenly felt he was looking at the man's killer.

Taking the words as they were meant to be taken -a threat- he fled further up but didn't get far before the earlier figure appeared out of thin air before him

"Ah, ah. Upstairs is off limits. There's a little girl trying to sleep, and you wouldn't want to wake her up, now would you?" David taunted. The human backed away from him but tried to be aware of how close he was to the edge of the stairs at the same time.

Just then a scream reached his ears and he cried out, "Alan?"

"What do you know that sounded like it was coming from downstairs," Paul said suddenly so close to him that Edgar can feel the chill radiating from his form. So, he does the only thing he could think of. Pulled out a vial of holy water, uncorked it with practiced ease, and threw it at the monster beside him only to have it splash the wall instead.

He received a sinister grin for his efforts. "More holy water?"

The one who he knew to be the twister sister look alike morphed his face and was suddenly terrifying and more demonic than anything he'd seen thus far.

"…I wanna kill him David please?" His eyes never left the human as he asked for permission.

David chuckled, "You know the plan. Not until tomorrow night but feel free to have some fun tonight as long as you don't let him escape."

"Oh, he won't."

Edgar then stupidly tried to run down the stairs only to misstep and take a hard tumble down them. Everything went black and he knew no more.

"…This time it wasn't me," David said somewhat bewildered as Paul looked put out over the turn of events.

"He better not have broken his neck like Michael 'cause that's way too fast and I have so many ideas!"

Dwayne appeared then and looked up at them from the body at the bottom of the stairs. "He's not dead… but did you notice we didn't get to use even half of our plans because they knocked themselves out of commission…"

David shrugged. "Doesn't matter put them with Star so we can deal with them tomorrow."

Dwayne nodded but then stopped suddenly looking up, "She's awake."

"I'll go check on her." Paul offered only to be hit over the head, "Ow, what's that for?"

David glared. "I'll check on her. You get that face of yours under control… it's worse than usual."

Paul looked surprised before reaching up to touch it. "Oh… yeah, I should do that."

That said, Paul helped Dwayne with the Frogs and David went to Lily's room.

-

A few minutes earlier Lily had been sleeping soundly went something woke her up. She groggily sat up and looked around wondering what woke her. Not finding anything the girl yawned and went to grab her stuffed animal to go back to sleep. Her arm accidentally knocked said stuffed animal off of the bed instead, so Lily being sleepy tried to reach for it without getting up from the bed. Only to fall to the floor.

"Ow…" Now more awake she grabbed the stuffed dog and stood up to survey her room. Nothing was out of the ordinary, but her eyes were suddenly drawn to her window which had the curtains closed. Curiously, she opened them and looked out only to see… nothing. Well nothing but rain.

Strange.

For some reason Lily thought that there was something there. Wait… there was a person? The rain was coming down pretty steadily so trying to make out who it was wasn't easy in the dark, rainy night but maybe… was that Grandma Star?

"Lily?" The girl jumped and turned around to see David standing there observing her. "What are you doing up?"

The tiny brunette shrugged, "I dunno... I just woke up."

He looked from her to the window and walked over to look outside of it as well. "Did you see something?"

For a second Lily thought to say no. She didn't want to sound silly because it was probably her imagination. Her grandma was in bed and couldn't walk but then the figure she thought she saw was slow and moved weird so… maybe? But didn't Grandma Star not like the rain… or was she confusing her with her mom that hated it?

"Lily?"

The girl pulled herself from her thoughts. "I-I think so?"

David's eyes scanned the yard not seeing anything unusual, but he turned to her and asked, "What did you think you saw?"

Lily decided to tell him just in case because if her grandma was outside then she probably needed help getting back to bed and the young Emerson wasn't big enough to do it.

"I thought I saw Grandma Star… but she's hurt and wouldn't be walking around outside in the rain, right?"

David smiled at her. "I don't think she would, but I'll go check just in case. Now you go back to bed because tomorrow night is going to be exciting and you'll need all the energy you can get."

Suddenly forgetting about the mystery of her grandma's appearance outside she turned her curious gaze to the ghost beside her. "What's happening tomorrow night?"

"It's a surprise but if you don't get to sleep then you'll be too tired to find out and miss it."

Her eyes widened at the thought. "Okay I'll go back to sleep!" She hurriedly climbs back into bed and laid down, pulling up her cover. "See I'm going to sleep." Lily's eyes closed. "I'm asleep now!"

"Good night Lily. Sweet dreams little sister."

With that David vanished and mentally told Dwayne to make sure she went back to sleep while he checked on a stubborn old lady and made sure she was where he left her. Turned out she wasn't. Annoyed, he tracked her down to the kitchen and found her soaking wet and barely standing on one leg while gripping the phone.

David walked up to her from behind and she was shaking. He's sure it's not completely from the rain. It was as if the woman was aware of his presence at her back. "David…"

He smirked. Well, that answered how aware she was. The once-vampire grabbed the phone out of her wet hands before yanking it from the wall and throwing it to the floor.

"Who were you trying to call, Star?"

She shook her head begging, "Please David… let us go."

"Your Frogs are already here but then you probably already knew that seeing as their eyesore of a truck is in the yard." He ran his hand through her soaked hair and she cringed. "Star… are we going to have a problem here?"

The woman finally lost the strength to stand and crumpled to the floor.

"…No."

David stared at her pitiful form, "…You're right. We won't because everything is set for tomorrow night. So, how shall you spend your last day?" She didn't answer so he interpreted her silence for her. "Sulking… Well, you did always seem to enjoy that. Alright if that's what you want then I won't stop you, but I don't think that's the right kind of attitude to be showing an impressionable little girl."

Star's head shot up, "Leave her alone. You said-"

David bent down to her level and looked her right in the eye. "That I don't want your mopey-ness catching so you can keep those frogs you're so fond of company since it's their last day tomorrow as well."

Star was trying to control her shaking voice and body. She had to stay strong for her granddaughter, "But Lily-"

David sighed glad to almost be rid of the broken record that was Star. "Will be fine without you. No better than fine. She'll be perfect without you. She doesn't need you, she has us now."

Star's dark eyes widen in fright, "What do you plan on doing to her!?"

"I'm not going to do a villain monologue and spill all of my secrets this far into the game Star."


	8. Bloodbath Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *EDIT 10/28/18* Chapter beta'd by exaigon on Fanfiction.Net

Lily woke up to the sun shining through her curtains. The storm had passed, and it was a bright sunny summer morning it seemed. Yawning, the little girl sat up and stretched before lazily getting out of bed and going into the bathroom.

She looked toward the tub first thing and muttered a good morning to Paul even if he couldn't hear her. It seemed like the polite thing to do. Lily washed her face and brushed her teeth before going back into her room and looking through her clothes.

David didn't tell her what was going to happen tonight, but the little girl was suddenly wide awake and nearly bouncing in place at the thought of the surprise. Hopefully, Grams wouldn't ruin it.

Shaking those thoughts away the little brunette settled on nice baby blue top with a cute matching pair of skorts instead of a skirt or even a dress. Both looked cute and but skorts were much easier to play in and hopefully they were going to play. She briefly entertained the idea of going to ride the rides on the boardwalk but quickly pushed that aside seeing as her friends couldn't do that, at least right now.

Maybe they'd all go together someday though she hoped. She brushed her hair pulling it into a lopsided ponytail and headed downstairs.

At the end of the stairs she stopped and stared at the floor in confusion. "…A rug?"

There was a rug that hadn't been there yesterday. It was covering the bloodstain from her grandmother's fall. Had her grandma Star put it there she wondered.

Staring at it brought back feelings that she didn't want to linger on, so the girl just looked away and continued on her way to the kitchen only to notice another weird thing and stop just before she entered the kitchen.

"Where's the phone?"

The place where the phone had been was empty save for the obvious signs of it having been there, mainly the worn wallpaper and phone jacks. Lily had just made a call the day before, but the phone was now gone.

Why? Her eyes wandered from the empty wall to the surrounding area but found no sign of the missing phone. She didn't think her grandmother would do this… The rug maybe, but moving the phone?

Eventually she decided to just ask her grandma when she brought her breakfast. Hopefully Lily wouldn't get blamed for the missing phone since the girl knew she'd been the last one to use it and well, it'd be like with her cell phone all over again. Lily didn't want to think about that or the stairs…

Determined to not ruin her good mood, the little girl hummed a happy tune and prepared breakfast, though not pancakes because she knew that she needed more practice before doing it alone. It was too bad that Dwayne wasn't awake to help make breakfast. He was pretty amazing at it. She poured some juice to go with the toast. After eating her portion, she carefully took her grandma's breakfast into her room only to find it empty.

"Grandma?" Lily wandered into the room and sat down the plate of toast and the glass of orange juice on the bedside table. The empty bedside table. The lamp was missing but there was a folded piece of paper with her name on it.

Picking up the paper she opened and read it aloud, "Lily, I went over to my friend's house. The ones you called last night, remember? I should be back by nightfall so be a good girl and look after yourself until then. Love grandma…"

Lily flipped the note over in disbelief to see if there was anything else written but there wasn't.

The girl felt slightly uneasy before feeling mad and huffing, "She could've woke me up to tell me before she left…"

Lily crumbled the note and put it on the plate, angrily thinking that this was the second time she'd made breakfast for her grandmother and the second time it wouldn't get eaten.

Leaving the room, she threw away the toast and poured out the juice leaving both dishes in the sink instead of cleaning them. It served her grandmother right to have to clean them since Lily had spent the time and effort to make them.

Knowing that she was going to be alone and bored but not wanting to chance seeing that scary monster man from the night before the young girl decides to watch TV.

-

After about an hour of staring blankly at the TV her mind and eyes wandered around the room. The living room was the same as always, minus the big cross that still hadn't been put back up but there was something nagging her.

Something seemed off.

Her eyes land on a wall and she stared at it. Lily wasn't sure what it was that caught her attention, but she got up and slowly approached it anyway. Once there the Emerson girl took note of the fact that the surrounding wall was flat, but this part stuck out.

It was probably designed that way but still her hand moved before thinking clearly about her actions and she'd touched the wall. Almost immediately Lily jerked her hand back and felt nauseous and overwhelmed before quickly backing away.

Warily eying the wall she ran back to the couch and jumped onto it hugging a nearby pillow hoping to feel better. Lily eyed the wall for a while as if something was going to emerge from it and attack her but time passed. When nothing happened her body slowly relaxed and Lily sighed, "It… was just my imagination… I mean how can a wall be scary? A wall can't be evil…"

She shook her head and laughed at herself before trying to focus back on the TV.

The rest of the day passed in a boring and un-notable fashion with her dozing off at times and eating junk food throughout the day. Once she noticed the time Lily started to feel excited about her ghostly friend's appearance but then shortly after eight the doorbell rang, and the girl froze staring wide eyed towards the front of the house.

Lily didn't move hoping it was her imagination acting up again. But then it rings again and again.

She's all but shaking when a voice said, "Are you going to answer that?" She jumped, and a familiar voice laughed, "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."

She calmed down some at being in the presence of one of her ghosts but still warily asked, "What if it's that monster from yesterday?"

David smiled slightly. "Don't worry it's not him."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. "Yes, now don't keep your guests waiting."

"Guests?" The girl questions but still gets up from the couch and makes her way to the door as another voice answered, "Yes, your grandmother invited them."

Standing before the door the girl paused and looked back, "Where is-"

No one was behind her. The ghost must have hidden themselves, so Lily opened the door and was greeted by a group of teenagers holding a cooler and other stuff. One thing was box-shaped, maybe speakers?

"Um-"

"Finally! The invite said any time after eight I was beginning to think we got the wrong address or something," the green-haired guy said before the barely dressed blonde girl with braids pushed her way inside making Lily stumble out of the way.

"Uh-" Lily tried again before another teenager, this one with darker hair, handed her something to carry.

"Here make yourself useful kid and put that somewhere." Lily nearly dropped it before someone shouted, "And don't drop it!"

There were six of them Lily realized. First there was the green haired guy in dark clothes who seemed to be the most talkative, second there was the blonde braided haired girl who Lily was sure was only wearing her underwear for some reason; third, the dark-haired girl-wait was that a girl? Lily wasn't sure as the person was wearing a lot of black clothes but also had long hair, and sure Paul had long hair, but he didn't wear makeup. That person had lipstick on… could boys wear lipstick?

Shaking her head, she turned her gaze to the fourth person; another girl. She was a brunette though and had more clothes on, but they looked way too small on her and must've been old because of all the tears in them. Fifth, was a blonde guy who was very tall, and like the girl, his shirt was too small as it hugged his skin tightly. She knew some people had growth spurts before they could get new clothes, so it wasn't his fault. It happened to a kid in her class once. Lastly, another person all decked out in black from their hair to just about everywhere else aside from the pale skin. This time Lily was sure he was a guy… but he had lipstick on so…

Then guys can wear lipstick, Lily told herself firmly. There was nothing wrong with that.

Looking at these people she couldn't see them as friends of her grandmother. Still, David had told her that her grandma invited these people over. Why? She quickly tried to do as the older kid instructed, being glared at all the while and overhearing bits and pieces of the conversation.

"This place is a dump."

"Yeah but it's in the middle of nowhere so it's the perfect place for the party," The 'too small shirt' guy replied.

"Only if you shut up and get to work. Everyone will be here in thirty and this place isn't even remotely ready, so get to it," underwear girl droned.

"Look at this thing. It's ancient," green-guy called out to the others while motioning to the old stereo system.

"Hey you, brat, does this thing work? How do you turn it on," Lipstick guy asked looking it over.

Lily shook her head. "I think it's broken…though it did play once," she mumbled thinking of her first night here as the green-haired guy fiddled with it.

"Leave it. It's totally busted up," underwear girl told him. That's when it started playing.

"Awesome I got it, take that!" He cheered at her as she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah well try and get it to play something from this century or turn it off," She responded snootily.

He gives her the finger making Lily frown. Her dad would've given her a time-out for that. And underwear girl sounds just like those high-school villain girls from the movies which Lily had thought was fake. Now she's suddenly not looking forward to high school because those girls might really exist. Lily liked learning, but she was learning some very strange things today. Her eyes automatically found lipstick guy as she thought that.

Eventually they got the music to play what they wanted it to. It's techno or pop or something Lily thinks but isn't sure as it's not her type of music. In fact, they should've just let it play the old rock music. Even if she didn't know the song at least it was a song instead of mindless noise. As her father called the music that kids like to play today. Mostly it was just loud noise that hurt her ears and had people standing way too close and shouting at one another… Why couldn't they turn it down and talk normally. The eight-year-old did not get this at all.

Lily was quickly pulled from her thoughts as more people arrived and soon the house was full of more teenagers than she'd ever seen outside of her TV. The small girl wondered again if her grandma really invited these people here.

At first, the original group of teens had her as their gofer but as more people arrived she managed to hide from them. Lily wanted to be polite but at the same time she wasn't their servant and it was hard to see them as guests the longer she watched them.

Lily suddenly wished to never become a teenager because they seemed just plain awful and they liked bad music and wore clothes that were not cute at all!

Quietly and quickly Lily darted around them and up the stairs before making it to her room and closing the door. Even that didn't keep the awful sound from reaching her.

"…Where is grandma?" She asked herself as she went to her bed and crawled under the covers trying to block out the sound.

"Awful I know… I nearly didn't let them change it to this… noise."

Lily quickly pulled the covers off her head cheering, "Dwayne! Wait, so the music box downstairs, was you?"

He grimaced before speaking, "It's broken but I am tied to it, so it'll play if I want it too."

"Why let them play it, though?" Lily asked while pushing stray strands of hair from her face. The cover messed it up when she pulled it off like she did, but the girl hardly cared about that. She wasn't happy with this surprise if this is what David was talking about.

"A party needs music… or whatever that is." He shrugged as Lily frowned and climbed off the bed.

"So, was this party what David was talking about last night?" Dwayne can hear the disappointment in her voice.

"David's idea of a party isn't this. Don't worry. I'm sure he meant something else."

Lily smiled slightly, "So then this is grandma's party?"

Something about that seemed off.

Dwyane sounded thoughtful, "Believe it or not when your grandmother was young she was a party girl. Mostly beach parties but I wouldn't be surprised if she'd attended a house party or two back then."

Lily eyed him with skepticism, "Really?"

He nodded. "So, I guess you don't want to join the party."

Lily shook her head. "No… I won't miss David's surprise, though, if I stay up here, will I?"

Dwayne smiled, "I know what David has planned and I'll be sure to come and get you when it's time so until then just try and bear with the noise."

"What if I fall asleep?" Lily asked worriedly.

"If you can sleep through that then you deserve an award. That 'music' is enough to wake the dead!"

Lily looked over to the door and saw Paul shudder at the thought, "Really what's wrong with humans now? It's like they're tone deaf or maybe completely deaf. How can they like this crap?"

The small brunette ignored the bad word and giggled, "So if I play it in the bathroom tomorrow you'll wake up?"

"What?" Paul asked confused and Dwayne answered for her, "You said that music would wake the dead, and seeing as how you're dead…"

Paul shook his head with a grin. "Good thing I won't be in the bathroom tomorrow for you to try it then."

"Why wouldn't you be there?"

Dwayne looked over at his fellow ghost in exasperation as the other realized what he said. "Um er- right well David sent me to get you." He looked at Dwayne and then back at Lily, "We have some things to do before we can all hang out tonight, but if you fall asleep we'll wake you up." He winked, "Wouldn't want you to miss it after all."

"…Can you tell me what it is?"

He shook his head answering in the negative, "Sorry it's a surprise."

He grinned, and Lily sighed, "Okay… but can I help?"

Her hopeful eyes find Dwayne who gently pet her head, "You can but not right now."

Lily started to protest but the two disappeared before she could. "…Stupid ghost powers!"

Walking over to her window she looked out into the yard and saw all the cars and bikes parked in it and frowned. If this was her grandma's party, then why was she missing it?

-

"Wakey, wakey Froggy woggy!" Were the first words Edgar heard upon waking up with a pounding headache and the suffocating metallic smell of blood. His eyes shot open despite the pain it caused.

"What the hell!?"

Edgar tried to move only to realize that his ankles were tied together like his hands.

"Looking a little pale there Froggy. You know, you should thank me. I've given you a much nicer bath than you gave me."

Edgar thought he was going to be sick. He was tied up in a bath of blood and even though it was not very deep, it was still revolting and made him gag and struggle. It only splashed everywhere and made him bloodier, so he stilled and tore his eyes away only to look up and scream.

Paul laughed, "Oh yeah you have no idea how hard those two were to hang up there without a physical body but, well, it was worth it don't you think?"

Edgar tore his eyes away from the dangling dead bleeding teenagers whose blood he was bathing in to glare at the ghostly form beside the tub, "You are sick, disgusting! When I get free I'm going to make sure you're gone for good."

Paul laughed so hard he nearly fell over while the elder Frog brother growled, "What's so funny?"

The vampire ghost wiped at his eyes as if to wipe away tears of humor despite not having any. "Maybe the fact that you think that you'll escape or maybe it's the fact that you are going to be the one to bring me back."

He grinned wickedly. Edgar paled further before shouting, "I'll never help you!"

"Good thing I don't need your permission."

-

Dwayne looked down at the younger Frog brother who was glaring at him through hooded pained eyes, "Whatever you have planned it won't work… Edgar will stop you."

He was already weak from being shot the night before but having woken to his leg being broken didn't help his chances. Still, he had to believe that justice would prevail and that his brother would save the day.

Dwayne hardly taunted his food but for once he felt the need to, "If he's your only hope then you don't have any."

Alan continued to glare. "He will stop you." He told him with conviction.

"…No, he won't. You see, last time I saw him he was laying in a pool of blood. Paul thought it'd be fitting if he died in a bath of blood."

Alan paled. "Y-you're lying."

Dwayne smirks. "I'm not."

The human's eyes tried to find a hint of deception but, despite the dull faded colorless eyes, he seemed to be telling the truth. "No… Edgar's not dead… he can't be."

"I wouldn't worry about him right now." Dwayne brought his hand up showing the stake in it and twirled it with a menacing grin. "Marko can't be here for this, but I thought it might be fitting to use one of your own stakes to make sure you feel what he did."

Alan's eyes widened. "B-but I'm not a vampire!"

Dwayne shrugged. "I'm sure it'll kill you just the same."

Dwayne bent down, and Alan tried to move but suddenly his other leg snapped and he screamed.

"There are some abilities that I'll miss… but it'll be worth it to be flesh and bone again."

Alan's mind was trying to focus on the words and moving but it wasn't easy.

"Do you recognize where you are?"

He felt something pointy on his chest and reached up to push it away only to have his arms both jerk above his head. They were tied together quickly and tightly. So much so that whatever it was restricting them was cutting off his circulation.

"You've been here before." He dragged the sharpened stake down slowly enough to tear his shirt but not pierce the skin underneath. Alan's breath was coming out fast. He was panicking and not thinking as he struggled. "Let's make a deal. If you can guess where you are before I count to five, I'll let you go."

"R-really?" Alan's asked in fright and Dwayne just started his count in lieu of answering, "One."

"Wait! I-I'm not ready!" Alan shouted.

"Two."

Eyes widened as he turned his head to the side and looked around frantically.

"Three."

"O-outside." He was lying on the ground. The stars were shining above him. He could see them through the vampire's transparent body. Only the vampire's hand holding the stake was more solid looking.

Dwayne chuckled, "Obviously, four."

Alan wiggled and tried to get free. There was no way he'd guess. It could be anywhere outside how was he supposed to guess correctly? The monster was just toying with him giving him an illusion of hope and- wait he froze and gripped the sand in his tied numb hands… no it's not sand, not completely. It's ash too and the smell of this place...

Alan realized just as Dwayne said, "Five, times up."

"No, wait this is the place we buried-"

"Sorry too late but congratulations on figuring it out." Dwayne smiled, and Alan struggled again… He'd only visited this place once after he helped to bury the remains of the vampires and was surprised to see what had become of the once normal ground.

It had died as if the very ground had been drained of all its life.

There was also a smell not like the undead but an ashy dry stale one that was unlike any place he'd smelt before so how did he not realize it sooner?

The stake was slowly breaking his skin and it was painful but, oh so slow.

"W-what are you doing?" He questioned in pain, wondering when he was going to go delirious or pass out from the pain. Surely, he couldn't take much more.

"Simple. I'm making sure you feel it. If I do it fast, then you won't feel what Marko did. And I did say you would feel the same pain."

Time passed, and the human screamed until his throat couldn't take it anymore and all that was coming out were whimpers and croaked screams. After an hour he passed out. So, Dwayne let go and conserved his energy until the Frog awoke again. Eventually, he did, and the torture continued until the stake was firmly planted into his heart. Dwayne stood there watching the blood drain from the dead body onto the sand, onto his grave; their graves.

-

David was bored with watching the humans, but it was finally nearly midnight and that meant that it was almost time to finish things. At this point both so-called vampire hunters should be dead and as neither Dwayne nor Paul told him otherwise he'd assume that they'd show themselves any time now to finish things.

His eyes drifted over to the brook closet where the unconscious old woman lay. He'd moved her from the shed to the closet during the party once everyone had gotten more than a little buzz going and by now most of the humans were drunk, high, or both.

Seeing as it was nearing time David willed himself to become visible and then went to the closet and opened it. Looking down at her he couldn't bring himself to feel bad for her.

Bending down he smacked her face hard enough to wake her but not do any real damage. She jerked awake and glared at him while shaking and tried to talk before realizing she'd been gagged. He smiled as she tried to move her tied hands.

"You brought this on yourself Star." He patted her reddening cheek making her jerk her aching head away. "I offered you everything and you threw it back in my face."

Despite her heart pounding from fear, she kept on glaring.

He sighed, "Even Michael realized what he had thrown away…"

Her eyes widened, and her voice came out muffled as she tried to speak. David's colorless eyes gleamed with barely suppressed delight. "You mean you didn't know? You must've suspected it."

Star looked away from his eyes trying to conceal her feelings from him as he moved closer. "I killed him. I killed Michael, it was no accident."

Star's eyes burned with both tears and hate as she looked back at him and he gave a fake sympathetic 'aw' as he 'consoled' her, "You know I couldn't have done it without one of you giving into me and Michael always regretted it. Deep down he wanted it but gave into fear. So, he let me in. Well, I'm sure if I had been able to stay calm about the whole thing I might've been able to free us sooner with his help but, hm… I let my temper get the best of me and as soon as I had enough energy to make my hands solid… you know the rest."

Star's tears freely flowed down her cheeks as she shook her head. "Don't believe me? That's fine because if there's an afterlife like you so strongly believe you can ask him very soon."

Standing back up he grinned, "Just be patient though. I plan to save you for last."

Star tried to speak around the gag, but David just shut the door again and standing there to the side was Paul.

"You really get off on tormenting old ladies, don't you?"

David said nothing, but his lips twitched up a bit. "So, I took care of my Frog. Where's Dwayne? He should be done too, right?"

"He is a bit late. Probably having too much fun."

Paul looked aghast, "Dwayne having fun? Think he knows how?"

Ignoring his fellow ghost, the leader of the boys looked around for a moment before concluding, "It's about time I have some fun tonight as well."

Paul grinned and nearly bounced in excitement, "Really, we can do it now?"

"Dwayne can join in once he arrives but yes we can start now. Paul you get the front door."

Paul nodded. Usually, Marko blocked the main entrance and he'd totally throw a fit if he knew about this. So first thing Paul planned to do when he found the smaller vampire again would be to rub it in his face. Though, he might wait until he helped bring him back before he started in on that.

-

Lily had dozed off at some point somehow despite the awful loud sound coming from downstairs. Her hand was holding onto her handheld - her charger had fallen under the bed- and the dog on the screen was running around none the wiser that the player had fallen asleep.

Suddenly, a scream had the girl jolt awake and look around frantically.

"What? A nightmare?"

She rubbed her eyes tiredly as the dog on her video game barked and she looked at it yawning before turning it off and laying back down. The music was still really loud, so it must've woken her up she decided while closing her eyes and trying to ignore the sound. Then she heard other screams and sat back up confused.

Was that the music? It could be but somehow, she didn't think pop techno computer generated stuff sounded like that. Part of her was scared and another said maybe it was a horror movie. They might've plugged those speakers into the tv… maybe it wasn't even screaming she heard. Lily shook her head and grabbed her stuffed animal to hold onto while diving underneath her blanket and pillow hoping to hide from the sounds that might be terrified screams.

It seemed to last forever but then suddenly it stopped. Not the awful music but the screams.

That had to be a good thing, right?

Lily laid there for a few more minutes before crawling out from under her blanket and off the bed towards her door wondering if she should open it when the music died.

The whole house was quiet.

-

Downstairs three figures, more solid than ever before, stood bathed in blood and surrounded by dead bodies. Dwayne was watching the blood drip from the body pinned to the stereo.

"So that's it then? The blood in the spots we died and our graves? Because I don't feel like I'm undead yet…" Paul looked at David who calmly smoked a leftover cigarette from one of their victims. It wasn't easy for him to get them, but Paul wondered if, when he did, he could even taste it or if it was just the familiar action. Well, he could taste the blood even if it was more of a phantom taste. It was much stronger than any before but still…

"There's one more step but before that…" His voice trailed off as he looked towards the closet he'd left Star in. No doubt she was terrified. If he couldn't hear her heart pounding at the moment, David would be worried that she'd had a heart attack from listening to them feed.

David made his way to the closet while the other two remained where they were looking on. Opening the door, he found her shaking form with all the anger and hate from before gone. The only thing in Star's eyes was fear.

"Hey, Star I told you that wouldn't take long," he smirked around the cigarette while reaching down to grab her arm and toss her out of the closet. She landed on a dead body causing the older woman to scream behind her gag and try to flop away from the corpse like a landed fish. This resulted in her just landing in a spot with more blood and Paul watched amused as she all but hyperventilated.

"Better do something before she dies of fright David," he laughed.

David agreed as he listened to her heart, "You're right. Her heart can't have that many beats remaining."

Watching her try to keep away from the bodies as well as the blood quickly lost its humor, just like everything else that involved Star for David. He dropped his cigarette and approached her. She saw him, and she tried, to the best of her abilities, to flee but it was just as successful as before.

He was kneeling in front of her again like when he confessed to the murder of her husband. She wished the gag was gone so she could yell at him for it but the thought quickly left as her hand touched something warm and wet behind her and it helped to support her.

Jerking her hand away she didn't have time to try and dodge his hand as it grabbed her face and made her look at him. Their faces were close, and she tried to pull away, only to have his nails dig into her face in response, so she stilled.

"I think I've had more than enough blood tonight and I don't particularly want yours."

She sagged with slight relief despite knowing that he still meant to kill her. At least he wasn't going to feed on her. He noticed her body language right away and smirked mockingly, "But I will anyway."

She tensed back up and tried to pull back again forgetting that the nails were firmly planted on her cheeks and drawing blood now. David watched the blood run down her face and leant forward to lick it off causing her heart to, impossibly, beat faster and her body to practically vibrate.

She was terrified and that's exactly the reaction he wanted from her. The only reason he'd done it. Pulling back, he licked his lips. "You taste old Star… And you've not aged like fine wine."

Star couldn't work up the will to get mad at his taunting and even if she did there was nothing she could do. She was helpless. He tugged her head to the side revealing her neck and leaned close.

"…This is going to hurt a lot," he warned her still grinning malevolently. Though she couldn't see him, she could feel it as his lips laid against her neck. How she could've ever been attracted to such a monstrous smile she'd never understand.

Then just as David's fangs were about to pierce her neck, a scared cry stopped him.

-

Lily had opened her door and only taken a few steps before she knew something was terribly wrong, but she braved on. That's when she saw an unmoving body at the foot of the stairs. Her mind flashed back to another still body and her limbs froze before realizing that wasn't the only body and there was red; a lot of red.

Blood, her mind told her.

Part of her wanted to flee and hide under her covers.

The other was in shock and didn't want to move.

But there was yet another part still that had her walking forward down the stairs towards the body, towards the blood, and towards a familiar voice.

Someone was talking but Lily couldn't comprehend the words.

She stopped just before the bottom of the stairs and turned toward the voice, away from the bodies, only to see more bodies and even more blood.

And there in the middle of it all were David, Dwayne, Paul, and her grandmother.

Her grandma Star's back was towards the stairs but that meant that Lily could see David's face. It was the same face as the monster from the night before.

David was a monster.

He had fangs.

Dead bodies, blood, fangs, monsters…

Seeing his mouth get closer to her grandmother's neck had her cry out in fright before she could stop herself, "Grandma!"

David froze, and the other two monsters' eyes found her. She shrank back even as David's face changed back to normal.

"Lily…" David spoke her name calmly as Dwayne tried to approach her only to have her back up and nearly trip because she forgot about the steps and the bodies.

She was scared. The dead bodies made her even more frightened.

Closing her eyes, she trembled. Lily really didn't want to die.

"You're not going to die." A voice said in front of her and her eyes flew open from shock. She skipped back to escape but, once more forgetting the stairs, she tripped. The brunette never fell because of Dwayne.

"Careful," Dwayne murmured to the scared girl. He picked her up and held her tight as she shook against his chest.

"I-I don't wanna die," she repeated once again not realizing that she was speaking her thoughts aloud.

Dwayne tried to calm her down again, "You're not going to. I'm not going to hurt you."

Lily didn't say anything as he carried her over to the others. She clung to him and tried to stay as far away from David as possible.

"Lily, it's okay we're your friends remember?" Paul smiled at her as the little girl looked at him unsurely before looking back to Dwayne who nodded. "We are."

"They're right. We promised you'd live with us forever." Lily turned towards David, startling at how much closer he was. She clutched at Dwayne in fear. David noticed. Once again Star complicated things he thought somewhat bitterly.

Before David could say anymore Dwayne, noticing how much energy he had used up tonight tried to set her down before he became intangible and dropped her. But the girl wasn't relinquishing her hold so he looked to Paul who quickly grabbed her as he lost his solidarity.

She cried in fright while Paul tried to cheer her up, "It's okay I got ya' and I'm much better than old Dwayne there." He grinned but she didn't return it. Still, she clung to him for support trying not to think that he might be a monster in disguise like David.

Paul had always known that David was not meant to comfort children. No, it was basically up to him and the rest of them to scare them instead. He wondered vaguely if he was going soft... Well, at least he wasn't as bad as Dwayne in that department the ghost comforted himself.

David frowned before an idea formed.

"Lily you know we're trying to come back but unfortunately, that requires blood. And we only need just a bit more…"

Paul looked up from the girl in his arms and quickly caught onto his leader's plan, the last step.

Getting blood willingly from the one who let them in, her being an ignorant and innocent child made her a much better candidate than Michael would have. But right now, she was afraid of them or, well David at least.

"David's right. Just a drop would work. Nothing worse than a papercut…" Paul trailed off and looked to Dwayne who sighed, "What they're saying is if you give us a drop of your blood we won't have to take any from your grandmother."

Lily looked at Dwayne as if to try and gauge the truth.

"…Are you monsters?" Lily finally asked after a moment of silence.

"…We need blood to survive and live forever… do you think that makes us monsters?" Dwyane asked in a sad tone and Lily did not hear any falseness in it unlike Star who had, since Lily arrived, been trying to speak through her gag to no avail.

Lily didn't know how to answer so Paul added, "We're like carnivores. Like lions and tigers and they're not monsters, are they?"

Lily blinked and stared at him. "No… I guess not, but does that mean you'll eat me?"

David spoke then, "No, you're one of us."

Lily turned back to him a little less afraid at those words. "So, will I be like a tiger too?"

"More like a kitten." Paul joked just as Star finally worked the gag out of her mouth, "Don't listen to them Lily, they're liars and murders!"

The young brunette's eyes flew to her grandmother and David barely suppressed a growl.

"Shut up Star if you know what's good for you."

The elderly lady didn't listen. "They are nothing but soulless monsters. They don't care about anything but-"

David was in front of her before she uttered another word with his hand wrapped tightly around her throat causing both her and Lily to gasp. Dwayne and Paul both see the small progress they'd just made fading as Lily wiggled out of Paul's grasp.

"Let go of her! Please, David, don't kill my grandma!"

She ran up to him and grabbed his arm and he briefly tightened his grip before letting go. Star gasped for air and Lily to looked at David and came to the conclusion, "I-if I give you my blood you'll come back and leave my grandma alone?"

For a minute the only sounds were Star gasping for breath before she found her voice again, "No Lily you can't-"

David quickly gagged her again, tightly, before answering without looking at Lily, "Sure kid when we come back we'll leave your grandma alone."

His voice sounded strange, but she decided to trust him, "Okay then you can have my blood… but just a drop."

Dwayne moved first. "Thank you, Lily. Give me your hand."

She tried to stay brave, "Will it hurt?"

"Just a little prick on the finger. It'll be over before you know it." He engulfed her hand in his larger one and knelt in front of her and then used his other hand to cover her eyes, "H-hey!"

Then she felt it. "Ow."

Lily's reflexive reaction was to yank her hand back, but he held it firmly. She felt a quick lick and then it was done, and she could see him again. She looked at her finger where a small bead of blood was rising but before she could do anything about it Paul put her finger in his mouth for a second and then let go with a grin.

"Thanks."

Looking at her finger again she saw that it stopped bleeding, so she squeezes it to make it bleed again before holding it out to David who simply took off his glove and used his own finger to wipe a bit of blood off before bringing it to his mouth and tasting it.

And just like that, he faded away and Lily looked stunned before looking back and seeing that Dwayne and Paul were gone as well.

"They're gone…?" A muffled voice caught her attention and so she tried to undo the gag in her grandma's mouth, but it was really tight and took more time than Star would've liked it too. Once it's down she started speaking right away, "Hurry and untie my hands. We have to leave as quickly as possible."

"Why?" Lily asked even while she was working on the rope on the elder woman's wrists.

"When they come back we'll be in danger."

Lily paused for a second. "David promised-"

"He's a liar! As soon as they come back we're dead!" She all but screamed but the tone wasn't what scared the little girl. It was the words.

"B-but he said-"

"Don't ever trust a vampire."

Lily's mouth dropped open, "Vampire…?"

"Lily now is not the time hurry and untie me!"

The girl snapped out of it and tried to untie her again, but she was fumbling more due to fear. Eventually, she got it loose enough for Star to free her hands and then she worked quickly on her feet.

"How are you going to move?" Lily whispered shakily.

"I'll manage all we have to do is get to a car and there are plenty outside."

The young girl tried not to think about the reason there were so many cars and that the people who rode in them wouldn't do so ever again. She made sure not to focus on the unmoving bodies as she tried to help her grandmother move but it was slow going.

That's how her eyes drifted to the wall from before and she noticed something and paused, "The wall… it's bleeding."

"Lily we have to keep moving," Star told the girl but she didn't listen.

"Grandma that wall is bleeding!"

Still half crawling, she replied, "No it's not. There's just blood on it."

Lily watched the wall scared. "It's not! The blood is coming from inside the wall look at-"

"Lily we don't have ti-"

Suddenly the wall exploded and debris few causing Lily to fall into some bodies. They helped to soften her fall, but she wasn't really aware of that at the moment.

Lily coughed as smoke, no soot, covered the area. "G-grandma?"

Looking toward the spot where her grandmother had been. She saw her lying down with something that looked like a brick near her head.

It was all so confusing. The wall was wood, not brick, and why the soot?

"For once those idiotic boys did something right for a change."

Lily looked over to the hole in the wall as the soot finally settled and she was able to see who spoke.

Her eyes met his.

It was the monster from the night before.


	9. The Fireplace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *EDIT 10/28/18* Chapter beta'd by exaigon on Fanfiction.Net

Lily's little body was currently going through way too many emotions for one night. She briefly entertained the notion that this was all a nightmare, but her sore muscles and aching bruises from her fall said otherwise. As did the bodies underneath her. They felt real; the sounds, smells, her fear.

As real as the monster that came from the new hole in the wall was and she was alone with him. Grandma wasn't moving, and her ghostly friends weren't around. If they even were her friends… they caused this…

Liars, killers, monsters… that's what her grandma had said.

Lily didn't know what to believe. She wanted to believe in them but…

But the only thing she did know for sure was that she didn't want to be around the thing in front of her. Lily shakily stood up and tried to run only to take a few steps and slip in something wet. She barely caught herself with her hands, but they too slipped bringing her almost face first into the red substance beneath her.

The monster laughed cruelly, and Lily just wanted to curl up and cry as she pulled herself back up. Her hands were stained red from catching her fall. It was on her knees as well, but her eyes could only see her hands and she quickly tried to frantically clean them the only way she knew, by rubbing her hands on her shirt.

This only smeared the blood further panicking the eight-year-old.

Because it was blood. Real blood and it was everywhere. It was on her!

Max stopped laughing and surveyed the area. "David and my boys always did know how to make a mess and as their father, I was and am, as always, left with the cleanup."

He sighed and removed his glasses while pulling out a piece of cloth from his front pocket to clean them.

His words caught Lily's attention as she desperately clung to his voice in an effort to forget about the blood.

"Father…?" For once she wanted her dad.

He makes a noncommittal noise of agreement, "It's not just my job to clean up after them. Oh no, I must also discipline them as well…" He put his glasses back on and looked at the small scared girl before him.

She took an unsteady step backward as something in his eyes urged her to flee but her legs wouldn't cooperate completely.

"Sadly, I don't think there's much hope for them, I may have to start all over." Lily didn't understand but it appeared that he was mainly speaking to himself for the moment. "Unfortunately, you won't work either… already so rebellious at such a young age. It seems like you're just another mess to clean up."

He looked around as if trying to find something all the while he continued to talk, "How about I tell you a story, hmm? It's the story of a man who only wanted a family. A perfect family."

Lily took another step back as he started to walk around the room looking at the bodies, searching for something. "Sadly, for the man, his wife was not only barren, but unfaithful as well." He bent down and carefully searched one of the corpse's pockets so as not to get any blood on himself before speaking again, "Luckily, the man met a person who understood him, who changed him and his life for the better. He gave him a gift. Immortality."

He searched another corpse just as carefully while Lily glanced towards the hallway wondering if she could make a run for it. "Now the man had all the time in the world to get what he wanted, the perfect family."

He stood up with something in his hand and looked at Lily with a smile. "So, the man returned home and got rid of the useless ungrateful wife and started his quest. After years of searching, he found a son."

Lily wished the story was over, she really didn't like it. Max held his hand out and revealed a lighter to the young girl's confusion.

"The son was strong, handsome, respectful. I knew right away that he would be perfect."

He lit the tiny fire and stared into the flame before letting it die and stared back at the girl. "I soon came to realize that being given the gift of immortality made him restless. Obviously, he needed a sibling to help calm him down, so like a good father I found him one a few years later."

He flicked the lighter absentmindedly while he spoke, "It seemed to do the trick… it seemed to. Truthfully, I can see now that it was an act and that he was just as rebellious and headstrong as ever even then. My other son was ideal though. On the quiet side but he kept David out of trouble."

Lily's felt her heart skip painfully as she finally realized who/what this story was really about. But Max's gaze was far off not noticing, or maybe not caring, that he had changed from third person to first person with his story.

"He didn't however, stop him when it was something he truly wanted. So, when my son used my blood to turn that ruffian they all had to be punished. Having three sons wasn't easy, not when they looked towards David to lead them… but I thought they'd finally learned their lesson."

Blood, immortality… vampires. Certain things were starting to form in her mind based on this tale and words that had been said to her. To live forever she would have to be like this, like him. A monster.

Monsters were scary. She didn't want to be a monster but... she didn't want to be killed by one either.

He started flicking the lighter faster, as if agitated.

"They didn't, as not even a full decade later they had chosen to give immortality to another unworthy candidate." He frowned deeply and stopped playing with the lighter abruptly.

His eyes seemed to be focusing again, "So then I had four sons and it became obvious that a woman's touch was needed. They needed a mother." He tilted his head and smiled innocently, and it looked off even to her young eyes.

"I went through many potential brides but only one was perfect… Lucy."

Then his face changed to that of the monster and Lily gasped.

"Lucy was your great-grandmother you know."

Lily backed away again only to trip over a body this time. It was her Grandma Star's unmoving form. She unconsciously moved closer to her as if some part of her thought she could protect her from him.

"Your grandfather Michael and his brother Sam were also very troublesome children. If not for them I could've had it all," he nearly shouted and took a menacing step towards the girl before his gaze found the woman Lily was leaning against.

"Of course, Star is just as guilty in that regard." He glared at the motionless woman, "Once again David disobeyed me, but I was willing to overlook it. After all a daughter couldn't be nearly as much of a hassle, so I thought…"

The monstrous man was now right in front of her tracing her face with his long fingernails making her whimper and try to scoot back. But her grandmother's body wouldn't let her.

"Then just as it was all going to come together perfectly, it fell apart. Lucy's children had slaughtered my own, not much of a loss really."

He chuckled evilly as Lily realized what that meant. Her grandpa killed her ghosts… Did that mean they really weren't her friends? Did they hate her? Were they going to leave her here alone with the thing in front of her?

Her thoughts stilled when Max suddenly snarled and tightened his grip cutting her face on his claw like nails before changing the tale's direction again.

"But then they managed to catch me off guard… Well I suppose, in a way, it was fortunate that I was killed in the fireplace and that my ashes merged with those in there. Even if parts of my remains ended up thrown away, I was still connected to the fireplace. Those useless hunters thought they could seal it up and keep me out and my boys thought they'd removed every last brick stained with my presence, but they miscalculated."

Lily wished that her ghosts would show up even if it was only to distract him from her but at the same time the idea of them joining the monster before her scared her even more. Would they do that though? They didn't like him, and he didn't seem to like them either, so maybe…

Please, please show up David, Dwayne, Paul, anybody, she mentally prayed.

Her prayers weren't answered though as he released her and backed away with a smirk. "Well, that's it for story time. I think it's time for you to go to sleep now."

He flicked the lighter on again and walked over to one of the bodies before grabbing one's long hair and lighting the hair on fire.

Lily stared, stunned and wondered what he was doing. He continued this pattern several times before she realized what was happening. He was trying to set the house on fire.

Clean up the mess.

That's what he said… He also said she was a mess. She turned her terrified gaze to him as he finished up and he met her horrified eyes.

"If only you had been a good girl this all could've been avoided. I would've made you my new daughter…" He shook his head in disappointment. "Don't try to escape. It's pointless."

Then he was gone with only a slight breeze rustling her messy hair as an indication to which way he went, the front door.

A groan startled her then and she looked at her grandmother.

"G-grandma!" She quickly started to shake the older woman. "Come on wake up we have to go the house is on fire!" The small girl continued to shake her, but the woman only grunted and passed back out much to her granddaughter's dismay.

Lily put her head on the woman's back trying to hear a heartbeat. Instead she felt her breathing, so the girl tried to pull her as the fire started spreading closer, but it was obvious that it wouldn't work. She wasn't big enough and she knew it.

If she left, her grandma would die, but if she stayed they both would. Tears started to pour down her face smearing the soot and blood and she was hardly aware of the sting in her cuts as it got harder to see. The crying was also not helping with her ability to breathe. She coughed and noticed the smoke moving faster than the flames.

Her throat, already sore from breathing in the soot, rasped painfully with each new breath. She stood shakily.

"I-I'm sorry." Lily's blurry vision stared at her grandma's body one last time before she ran to the hallway.

-

It took less than a minute to reach the front door and once there her shaky hands grabbed the door handle and pushed only to have it not budge an inch. So, she tried to push harder. Nothing happened.

"W-wha…"

Lily started to breathe harder while her hands slipped from the doorknob as the monster's earlier words echoed in her mind, "Don't try to escape. It's pointless."

The tiny soot and blood covered girl threw herself at the door then. It didn't move. She tried again and again and again. Her shoulder was throbbing in protest as the hall started to fill with smoke. Lily tried hard to think things through because she learned about fires and what to do in school, but it was so hard to think clearly when she was so scared, confused, and sore.

A thought came to mind then. Her best hope was the kitchen windows. They were small, but she could fit and it was the closest way out besides the front door. So, Lily ran back down the hall covering her mouth and nose with her hand and trying to hold her breath. She ran past burning walls and bodies to enter the kitchen which was filled with even more smoke than the hallway causing her to cough and try harder to hold her breathe. Suddenly, a high pitch noise pierced the air causing her to stop covering her mouth to, instead, cover her ears.

It was the fire alarm. It seemed a little late for that.

Hurriedly, Lily made her way across the kitchen and to the sink where she climbed it clumsily unable to block her ears or her nose any longer. Her vision was clouded too by the smoke and her own puffiness from crying, but she managed not to fall. Once she was sitting on the sink Lily tried to open the window, but it didn't move a bit. It cost her a few precious seconds before she realized what was wrong.

There were nails. Someone nailed down the window.

Panicked, Lily grabs the closest thing, a potted plant, and tried to break the window with it. Only to break the pot and cut her hand instead without scratching the window. Crying, she held her bleeding hand close to her chest for a second before using her other to turn on the sink. She stuck it under the water, coughing all the while.

Wasn't there something about pouring water on yourself when there's a fire? She couldn't remember but Lily decided to do it anyway and opened the cabinet with the hand not currently under the water to get a glass. Then she removed her injured hand to fill it.

"C-come on, come on!" She tried to urge the faucet to go faster because the smoke was getting worse.

After filling the cup, she used her uninjured hand to pour it over her head. It probably wasn't enough water, but it was all she was going to get as the smoke was getting too bad to remain in the kitchen any longer. Not to mention the blaring alarm was hurting her already stuffy head.

Grabbing a dishcloth to wrap her still bleeding hand and running from the room, she encountered more smoke, more flames, and a wall of heat. She eyed the stairs hoping to get up them and away from the smoke. Holding her breath in her aching lungs she ran for the stairs.

-

Running up the stairs wasn't as easy as she'd thought it'd be because part of them was ablaze already and they were burning fast. Just like most of the house they were made from wood.

Once upstairs she ran into the first door she saw, which happened to be the bathroom. Lily quickly slammed the door shut behind her without paying much attention to the room itself; only to turn around and scream at the sight that greeted her.

The tub was full of blood with a body floating face down and two dead brutalized bodies hanging above it. She fumbled with the doorknob behind her with her bad hand at first before quickly using her left hand. Once the door was open she darted out and slammed it shut before running to her room chased by smoke that almost seemed alive in her mind.

Once inside her bedroom, the brunette ran to her bed grabbing the blanket, nearly knocking her handheld game to the floor in the process, and quickly brought it to the door. After stuffing the sheet under the door, the girl went to her window and tried to open it. Luckily, there were no nails in this one, but it wasn't easy to open with one hand and with her injured bleeding hand she couldn't make it move. So, she started to slam on the glass in desperation leaving behind bloody handprints.

Eventually, she backed away and tried to find something hard to break it with. She tried a hairbrush first then her handheld game that was still laying on the bed. The game's screen broke but the glass window only had a slight crack at this point. Lily wasn't going to give up. She looked around for something else to use and finally found it.

Lily warily eyed the lamp on the nightstand but didn't think too hard on it before quickly unplugging it. It was glass and her hand were already cut. Even if it cut her more she had to break the window. So, with all the strength left in her little body she picked up the lamp and tossed it at the window.

The lamp broke.

So, did the window.

Glass shattered. It was loud and painful.

Shards of various sizes and shapes flew about, cutting her arms mostly but, also her face where she wasn't able to shield herself.

The bleeding child ignored the pain even from pieces of glass buried in her arms and climbed up to the window, further cutting herself on broken glass. She took the hairbrush to smash at the remaining shards blocking her way out.

Once that was done, Lily looked outside the window and her hopes were dashed because there was no ledge.

Nothing to get a foothold on. No way to safely climb down.

Either she jumped, or she stayed put.

Glancing back at the door she wondered which one was worse. Lily really didn't know.

She brought her dark gaze back to the broken window to look down at the yard and saw all the cars and bikes just sitting there waiting for their owners.

The vehicles belonged to the dead people downstairs… They would never ride them again. They would never do anything again.

Would she?

Lily broke down then. She cried and screamed for help until she had to stop due to a coughing fit.

She realized something.

Nobody was coming.

Nobody was going to save her.

She was all alone.

Her parents weren't here... Would they even help her if they were or would they just have something new to argue about?

Her grandma was probably dead... Was that her fault?

And her ghosts David, Dwayne, and Paul... They had abandoned her.

Would she become a ghost? Did the people downstairs? Maybe if they had she wouldn't be alone if she died but... she still didn't want to die.

Lily tried to take a couple of deep breathes but it didn't help, not really. So, she gazed outside once again looking for answers. The ground didn't have them, so maybe the sky did. Her dark eyes looked up at the night sky.

It triggered a memory, a calming one.

"…do you wanna fly?"

"Stand on the window sill."

Standing up she did as the memory said and readied herself on the window sill.

"Now you jump."

Without another thought, Lily jumped.


	10. Resurrection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I plan on writing a sequel for this so even though this story is over the overall one still has more to come anyway enjoy the final chapter!
> 
> *EDIT 10/28/18* Chapter beta'd by exaigon on Fanfiction.Net

Coming home from his hunting trip to find the ominous message his sister-in-law had left on his home phone was not how Sam had wanted to spend his night after the last few days wandering around in the woods in search of a rare and elusive butterfly. Which sadly still eluded him.

'S-Sam they're b-back and th-D-David, he's after Lily p-please hurry…'

Then nothing.

The message was over a day old which was worrisome, and Sam only knew one David that could make Star act like that. So 'they're back' could only mean one thing, one very bad thing. He quickly gathered his vampire hunter equipment that the old man had hoped would forever remain officially retired and took off for a house he had not seen in years. And hadn't wanted to set eyes on ever again.

During the ride, he tried to call Star's number, but it didn't go through and he once again cursed her refusal to get a cellphone. Not that it would matter if David had gotten his hands on her. With that in mind he called the only other people who could possibly help her in the area.

The Frog brothers.

He also received no response from their numbers. He tried their parent's number but didn't hope for much. And he was right too as he received no answer there either.

Sam had hoped that Star was wrong, but it wasn't looking like it. Because if Star had called him then she had likely called Edgar and Alan already and the fact that they had cell phones, and both weren't answering was telling.

This was going to be a long drive, he thought as he glanced at the glowing digital numbers reading 8:07 at night and dialed another number for a conversation that he was dreading. The phone rang twice before a voice answered annoyed, "What do you want Sam?"

"Listen, Chris, I know you don't like me, but I have to tell you something… your mom called me and left me an upsetting message and now I can't get in contact with her. I'm on my way there now."

-

Lily didn't close her eyes. She remained looking up at the stars as she fell as she didn't want to see the approaching ground.

But then someone shouted her name, "Lily!"

Everything happened so fast after that. She hit something, no, it was definitely someone, hard and it hurt but not as much as she'd expected. It also didn't help that some of the glass shards dug in deeper as the person's grip tightened around her. Tears sprung to the little girl's eyes. Not from the pain but the fact that she wasn't alone anymore.

It took a minute to realize that the person who saved her was talking to her, "Are you alright!? You're bleeding. Come here we need to get away from the fire."

Lily barely noticed he had picked her up while talking because she had been laying on top of him where he had fallen after catching her. He was familiar, but she was too busy crying her relief to recognize him at the moment. He carried her away from the burning house while looking around carefully for anything that might try to attack the pair of them.

His heart was pounding hard in his chest from what the girl could hear. Only she wasn't aware that it was both from the fright of seeing her jump and the run he had to make to get there in time to catch her.

"Lily I'm gonna set you down so I can look at your injuries okay?"

She shook her head clinging tighter and he sighed, not knowing how to interact with children, let alone ones that were obviously scared. That's why Michael ended up with them instead of him.

However, that thought made him remember Star. "Lily, where's Star?"

The girl just kept clinging to him while sniffling, so he tried again, "Where's your grandma?"

She shook her head into his chest and he got the message. Star was dead or at least would be if she was still in the house. He raised his head and eyed the burning house before sighing. There was no way he could safely go in there and to do so would mean leaving Lily alone.

With the possible vampires lurking around that wasn't an idea he could entertain.

As carefully as Sam could he pried the girl's hands away as she started to go into a coughing fit. Once he had her at arm's length he took in her appearance fully. While it was dark with only the moonlight, stars, and light from his car's headlights he could still tell she was both matted with blood, soot, tears, and sweat. Not to mention she was burning up. Whether it was fever or from being so close to the flames, he didn't know.

All in all, she was a mess, how much of the blood was hers he also didn't know but he knew that he needed to find out in case she was seriously injured. Still, there was the possibility of vampires lurking around every corner so maybe they should leave first? No, they could leave once he made sure that nothing was deadly, he quickly decided.

"Lily, what hurts the most?" She sniffled again but didn't answer as she used her arm to wipe at her face, but that action caused her to cry out in pain.

"What? What's wrong!?" He grabbed her arm gently and saw fresh blood on it. But it wasn't from her arm. A bigger piece of glass stuck in her arm had cut her face right beside her eye. In fact, at first because of the blood he'd thought it had cut her eye. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

"Shit!" He exclaimed making the injured girl look worried. "Don't move anymore until I get some of this glass out or else you could lose an eye."

Her eyes widened making her wince as it stretched the new wound and tears started to flow once more stinging said wound. She was also breathing much too hard. Was it the smoke or because she was crying? A combination of both?

"Aw, shit don't cry. Man, I'm not good at this." As quickly and carefully as he was able, he carried her the rest of the way to his car and looked for something to clean and wrap her wounds. Finding only the holy water, he reluctantly poured some on a shirt from the back seat to try and clean her face and the newest cut which was hopefully not that deep despite all the blood coming from it.

She winced and pulled away from the smelly cloth.

"Come on kid work with me." Lily frowned but tried not to move as he took care of her face all the while finally recognizing him as her weird uncle Sam. Well he was better than nobody, but she was starting to wish someone else came. Lily winced again as he took the same cloth to clean her bleeding arms with.

"…I'm gonna take out this piece of glass now so just hang tight cause it'll probably hurt." Lily eyed him warily through her tears as he wrapped the dirty shirt around the biggest piece of glass in her forearm and paused. "You know on second thought this might need stitches. Better wait for a doctor to do it."

The young girl paled at the thought and then promptly threw up without any warning right on her uncle Sam.

"Shit! Oh man…" He backed away some and once she finished he grabbed some more holy water. "Um, here drink this." He handed it to her with one hand and awkwardly patted her back with the other one.

Lily was embarrassed but drank the water as more tears formed in her eyes. This was the worst day of her entire life she decided as her headache made itself known now that she wasn't running on adrenaline.

All she wanted was to go to sleep and pretend it was all just a bad dream.

She wanted to wake up at home with her parents arguing and just have everything be normal again.

But the heat she felt coming from behind her was real, monsters were real, this was a waking nightmare… She never understood that phrase before now and she wished she still didn't. Lily wondered how many wishes she'd made tonight as Sam tried to ask her questions again, but she wasn't paying attention.

He had to use the rest of the holy water on himself after she got sick on him and then he moved them both to the inside of his car hoping that she wouldn't be sick again. Just as he was deciding to drive them to the nearest hospital he heard something and looked over his shoulder.

Fire trucks and police cars were arriving at the scene.

Sam turned back to the house or what was left of it and decided that it was beyond saving. Luckily though, he didn't encounter any vampires and with all the police headed this way it wasn't likely that they'd show themselves even if they were around.

Sam was starting to believe that they weren't.

Maybe Star started the fire. Maybe she wasn't stable anymore.

Or rather hadn't been as there was a very high possibility that she was no longer alive.

Believing in vampires returning from beyond the grave was pretty crazy after all.

That still didn't explain all the abandoned cars around them, though.

-

It was the strangest feeling and currently not the most comfortable. The best way Paul could describe it was like his skin and insides were melting backwards or something. Hell if he knew, he wasn't poetic or some shit but he was reforming his skin over his skeleton and that was just way too weird for words. At least it wasn't as painful as when his skin melted off. Not that he thought anything could measure up to that kind of pain.

Oh, wicked. His veins were being put back together and he could feel it. It was actually making him kind of hungry. Now if only he could see, but Paul put that down to his eyes not having reformed just yet.

Dwayne was having a surreal experience as well, only he wasn't regrowing anything he was reassembling like a broken toy and he hated it. The feeling of being put back together. Sure, he wanted to be whole and in one piece, but he could've done without feeling it happen. David had to be the lucky one as both him and Marko just need to regrow one pierced spot. Sure, it was in their hearts but he couldn't imagine it taking nearly as long or being this uncomfortable.

A vampire's heart though, it turned out, was more complicated. Once pierced, it wasn't an easy fix. It stitched itself back together but at an agonizingly slow pace and David felt every minute of it all the while cursing Michael for his quick death. The pain was bad at the start but the more his heart mended the less pain he was in so at least there was that. But it still felt like it was taking far too long for his tastes.

Finally, Paul felt whole again but he still couldn't see. He knew his eyes were back, he'd felt them grow back. He was sure of it. In fact, he couldn't move either. No wait, he was moving. No... that was something else moving beside him. Wait, was he buried?

As soon as he thought that he knew that was the case. They'd reformed where their bodies had been laid to rest.

So, Paul would have to dig his way out of his grave like some sort of zombie and he dreaded the damage already done to his poor clothes. Not to mention his hair.

After what seemed like days of reviving and then digging, but was actually all less than half an hour, the ash-like dirt was finally rising along with it three figures. First a hand broke free of the earth and then several hands and soon full torsos followed. Then all at once they were free.

"Aw man, look at all this stuff in my hair!" Paul exclaimed ruefully as he ran his hand through it in disgust before shaking his head like a wet dog making dirt and ash fly everywhere.

"Knock it of," David growled at him with a glare as some of the dirt flew his way. He really needed a cigarette.

Dwayne was stretching as if he'd just woken up from a long nap but really it was a way to test out his limbs.

"Too bad they're dead cause I'd like to kill them again for making me have to go through growing back all my skin and veins and stuff," Paul said while trying to dust off his clothes to no avail. Yeah, they would have to be replaced. There was no way he could save them... just how many years were they buried anyhow?

"At least you were in one piece," Dwayne told him trying to forget his body literally piecing itself back together again. He shuddered.

"I was all bone!"

Dwyane looked him over commenting, "Nothing's changed then."

Paul gave him the finger.

David rolled his eyes. "Come on you big babies. I don't know how long it took to get our bodies back, so we need to get moving."

Dwayne was the first one to notice something off and he sniffed the air. "Do you smell that?"

Paul stopped shaking his jacket to say, "Wasn't me!"

David's eyes narrowed ignoring the other blonde vampire as he looked off into the distance. "The house is on fire."

His tone was calm but obviously not happy with his own statement and without another word he was flying through the sky with the other two close behind. They arrived in record time to see that the house was indeed on fire. It's practically engulfed in flames at this point, but the humans were doing their best to put it out.

David's eyes didn't linger on the fire instead he looked over the people. There were many down below the three floating vampires, but one caught his attention, Lily. She's alive and near the back of an ambulance. In fact, they were putting her in the back of it.

"I can smell her blood." Paul told them worriedly.

"…It's not a dangerous amount," Dwayne stated calmly but still looked concerned. David motioned for them to follow him and the three descended.

Easily they hid their presence from the humans with a simple mind trick. The only thing not simple about it was using it on so many at once.

Paul's gaze landed on one of the medical staff and he mentally told the others, "I'm always up for eating a nurse."

David snorted, "Maybe later."

The trio made their way to the back of the ambulance and saw the little girl being treated for some lacerations. Broken glass was being removed from her arms and she appeared to be mostly out of it. An oxygen mask was fitted over her face, as well. David wasn't a medical expert, but he was sure that she would make it. Her breathing was off, but her heartbeat was strong.

"So are we taking her?" Dwayne questioned. It would be easy to sneak her away from the humans but after a short pause, David shook his head, "No."

"Why not?" Paul inwardly pouted, "I thought she was going to become one of us? I mean, you did promise her."

David frowned and turned away from the injured girl. "Can't you feel it?"

"Feel what?" Paul asked in confusion as he'd felt a lot of things since their full revival just minutes earlier.

"Max," David snarled hatefully.

That caused Dwayne's eyes to narrow and Paul's expression to turn uncharacteristically serious, "...I do now."

Dwayne nodded his agreement.

"How the hell is he back?" Paul asked angrily.

David glared at the ground before replying with, "Doesn't matter how he came back. All that matters is that he's not staying."

The others silently agreed.

"After we deal with the problem we will come back for her."

"...She might think we've abandoned her, though," Paul pointed out.

David looked back at her for a moment, deep in thought, before his eyes drifted off to the shed that the fire hadn't touch. He walked towards it and the other two, of course, followed.

-

Lily was in somewhat of a daze as she was put into the ambulance. Questions had been asked, and still were being asked, and a lot of people in uniforms were there. Vaguely, she recognized them as firefighters and police officers but that's all. She couldn't tell anyone what they were doing or saying.

Currently, the young girl knew she was sitting in the back of a vehicle with a mask on her face and she was breathing better than she had been for some time now. Lily hadn't noticed how hard breathing was until they put the mask over her nose and mouth to help her with it. They said something about smoke and it made sense to some part of her brain, but she didn't have the energy to dwell on it.

Someone was taking care of her arms and putting bandages on them while another was cleaning her face much better than her uncle had. At least the cloth they used didn't stink like dirty laundry. Also, her headache wasn't so bad now. But all she really wanted was for them to stop talking and let her sleep.

Lily's eyes drifted to the backdoor windows of the ambulance, which had only closed a minute before, and she thought she saw David through the window for a second before she blinked, and he was gone. Suddenly she felt confused. Had she seen someone... who was it?

Sam was pacing worriedly. The police were too busy to ask him much in the way of questions, but he was sure that it would come later. He'd have to think of something to tell them but for now he was panicking about the whole smoke inhalation thing one of the paramedics mentioned because that was a bad thing, right? Just how much did she breathe in? A lot if her clothes were any indication, he thought. There was also the fact that even though he wanted to forget the whole vampire thing, it wasn't so easy.

He eyed the sky as if expecting to be attacked at any moment.

"Mr. Emerson." He jolted out of his train of thought with a jump as a police officer called for him.

"Y-yes." He cleared his throat and tried again, "Yes."

"Sorry I startled you. The ambulance is ready to take your niece now. If you'd like to go with them, we'll speak to you afterward." He nodded and started to head for his car only to see an eyebrow raise from the officer. "I'll follow them, I mean, you have a lot of vehicles to take care of already. You shouldn't have to deal with another when it's not necessary."

The policeman couldn't argue with that logic, so he nodded his acceptance and Sam took that as the go-ahead before he continued his walk to his car.

The policeman who spoke to him just sighed and looked around at all the empty vehicles scattered in the yard. He just knew that this would not be an easy night. It would possibly be one of the most tragic nights Santa Carla had had in many years if the people who drove those cars were where he suspected them to be. Before he could continue that train of thought, though, someone grabbed him from behind, not giving him the chance to scream before his neck was snapped and he was dragged behind a car to be a midnight snack.

"Well it's not a nurse but he'll do," Paul said quietly.

Meanwhile, the ambulance drove off with Sam following after it. While the reasoning he gave the police officer wasn't untrue Sam thought he should be extra cautious and follow the ambulance to watch out for any possible vampire attacks.

If there were vampires and especially if it was somehow the ones he'd helped to off as a kid... He was able to relax slightly at the thought that they didn't appear to be after Lily like Star had originally thought.

Inside the back of the ambulance it was only Lily now since she wasn't in any immediate danger and she seemed to be dozing. The paramedics left her to rest without them. But even as her eyelids became heavy, she couldn't sleep.

Something was keeping her awake and it wasn't the ringing in her ears from the exposure to the fire alarm for so long either. It was like a nagging thought inside of her mind along with a familiar feeling that would not leave her alone.

Her eyes tiredly looked around for whatever it was that was causing her to feel like this.

Lily's dark gaze fell on something laying right beside her hand and she wondered when that got there.

It was an envelope?

Groggily, she grabbed it and brought it to her face. There were words written on it.

It was familiar letters spelling a word she knew by heart, but it took her a moment to begin processing it.

It read 'Lily'.

The letter was to her.

Something else was in there besides a letter, Lily could feel it.

More alert than before she carefully sat up some and opened it before turning it over into her bandaged hand.

A small red vial fell into her palm at the action.

She would know that color anywhere. It was a vial of blood.

Her eyes landed on the paper that slid out beside it.

The paper's words were short and to the point and Lily could almost hear David's voice as she read them.

"A promise is a promise."

Lily had thought it was over but no, this was proof that it wasn't.

Gripping the vial of blood in her hurt hand and the paper in her other one Lily leaned back and closed her watery eyes. She'd think about what it meant later.


	11. About the Sequel and Thanks

Hello everyone in case you didn't know I've always had a sequel planned for this story so stick around if you want to find out what happens after the end of Haunted by Vampires! The real reason for this author's note though isn't just to announce I plan on writing a sequel (which most of you already know) or that one is already up (sadly that's not the case) but to let you all know that somewhere along the way I thought up three different sequel ideas and that's where I want you the readers' input.

The sequel can either take place three years later where Lily is eleven which was the original idea I first thought up, so I currently have the most plans for this one but that doesn't mean I can't/won't have a good plot for the other ideas if you decide on them instead.

The second sequel idea takes place ten years later where she is eighteen if you want the sequel to eventually have some romance added to it choose this one. Now romance wasn't in the plan, to begin with, because I was like she knew them as a kid so that might be weird but then someone asked about it for the sequel and my mind did what it does best and came up with ideas.

The first was well she hasn't met Marko yet, so I could see that happening when she's older. Then another idea occurred, well she did kinda have a kid crush on David (remember the game of Life she played with Star) that and I always planned that if she grew up she'd resemble Star quite a bit so that'd be interesting to deal with the drama that could bring... anyway, that's all up in the air but if you pick this option you can weigh in on who you think she should be paired with and why.

And lastly option three I can pick up exactly were I left off from 'Haunted by Vampires' now I have the least amount of ideas for this one, but I can still do it if people don't want a time skip.

I'm fine with whichever one honestly because I have good ideas for all the scenarios.

Or you could just go crazy and say you want all three... er that wouldn't be impossible, but I'd have to find a way to mash all my ideas together and I could do it, but boy would that be long, I'd probably divide it into two stories, so this would become a trilogy or something... if I did that the second story would still be romance free for people who want that but also like the idea to give this option to others who wanna read romance and still wrap up the story cause I have the ending figured up for when she's eleven already and that is a much more solid ending than what you got for this story. Truthfully part of me likes the idea but another is like choose a smaller option please but well whatever I'm excited nonetheless to really get into thinking up the plot and writing it.

Anyway, let me know which sequel you wanna read through comments or send me a message about it (on fanfiction.net) I'll be taking votes on here, fanfiction.net and wattpad until the end of September because I want to have the first chapter of the sequel ready to post on Halloween.

Thank you for taking your time to read this and for those of you who also decide to vote!

Now onto the last portion of this way too long author's note, I wanted to once again thank all my readers both the silent ones and those who left reviews, favorited and/or followed my story.

Finally a special thanks to all those of you who reviewed by name well by username anyhow: DisneyDuckFan, Nova


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